Open Studio
Fall 2024
In my practice, I explore the complex relationships between materials, the environment, and the self. I am deeply interested in the concept of entanglement, where human, material, and environmental forces intertwine in a dynamic, interdependent process. Rather than imposing my preconceptions on the materials, I allow them to guide the creative flow, embracing this entangled state. Through this approach, I often find recurring motifs—such as reflectiveness, expansiveness, and preciousness—emerging unconsciously. These qualities reveal themselves as the materials take on their own agency within my work.
Water is a central medium in my practice, serving both literally and metaphorically as a balancing force. It allows me to navigate the tension between control and unpredictability, particularly when working with materials like mold. This duality speaks to my interest in affect—how materials elicit emotional and sensory responses that influence the direction of my work. I attune myself to the subtle prompts of the materials, responding to their shifting qualities and learning from their inherent properties. This process becomes a dialogue, a constant negotiation between control and surrender.
The ideas behind this work were initially inspired by my 2023 zine Obsellvation, where I explored my attraction to silver as an alter ego. Silver, with its reflective quality, embodies both a symbolic and literal understanding of survival. In my work, I examine how certain materials, particularly silver and water, trigger a primal human response. We are instinctively drawn to the reflective surface of water, which signals life-giving sustenance, and through this, I connect my exploration of materials with existential themes of survival and identity.
In this context, I also engage with existentialism, seeing materials not just as tools but as agents that shape meaning and experience. I am interested in how the materials I work with—especially silver and water—can represent a kind of existential journey. My alter ego, who covers herself in silver and water, becomes a metaphor for survival in a world where the boundaries between self and material dissolve.
This blending of materials and concepts leads me to engage with flow theory. I am drawn to moments when the process of creation becomes immersive—when I am fully absorbed in the work, and the boundaries between the self, the materials, and the environment blur. In these moments, I experience a state of flow, where my actions are in perfect alignment with the materials, and I am both fully present and in tune with the process unfolding in real time.
This new body of work documents a performance by my alter ego, capturing the fluidity of my interaction with graphite, water, and my own body. The work becomes a trace of existence, an imprint of the entangled relationship between affect, materiality, and the human condition. Each piece is a record of this ongoing dialogue between the self and the world around me, a conversation that reveals both the vulnerability and strength inherent in the act of creation.
This installation captures my ongoing research process with the archival capture of my studio metamorphosing on its own. I attempt to blend in my existing experiments, documents and writings into one singular space in a way that directly translates my way of approaching this field of interest. Mimicking an accumulation of such coded information and an active form of self-reflection I challenge myself with giving reason to my interaction through the semantic language. With the interactions being ‘obsessive’ and the acknowledgment of the existing alter-ego, I give a go at embracing it and yet contain it to give a structure within the entangled chaotic way of existing.
