Human Shield
Mixed Media | 2023-2024
Deeply impacted by the events of October 7th, I was driven to explore the concept of home as a protective territory and an influence on my personal identity. In what ways is my identity shaped by the territory I live in? What happens when "home" can no longer fulfill its purpose? Does our territory use its borders to shield us from harm, or are we the human shields that protect it?
Responding to a state of personal and national crisis, my exploration existed within the blurry lines that separate destruction and building. "Human Shield" aims to deconstruct the concept of "home" as a physical protective area and as an idea that reinforces a sense of belonging – while acknowledging its fragility. In a continuous process of material-based research and abstraction, I use repetitive methods and the same raw materials to rearrange representations of physical and conceptual turmoil.
Home, 2023
Digital collage, inkjet print on cotton paper
A digital collage of fragmented journalistic photographs depicting destruction come together to form a home. Devastated to its core, this home is stripped of its ability to offer solace or security. Yet while ruptured and exposed, it is nonetheless still a home. The digital image lacks depth, yet my decision to print "Home" on organic cotton paper infuses it with a deep vitality.
Topographouse series, 2023 - 2024
Mixed media, digital print on cotton paper
I used software to erase fragments of journalistic photographs depicting devasted houses, thus exposing their fragile contours while choosing to leave clues to a past existence. The computer cursor guided my hands as I randomly erased, seemingly copying the act of random destruction. As I erased, I gradually uncovered mapped territories composed of smaller sub-territories. I choose to print the maps on thin cotton paper originally used as a protective photograph sheet, which I removed from my old family photo albums.
Territorial Continuity, 2024
Plaster wall, burned porcelain objects, sewing pins
A transition from two-dimensional images to three-dimensional material allowed me to part with familiar shapes and deepen the abstraction process to facilitate new forms of rebuilding. The process of hand-cutting the topographic maps on ceramic porcelain – a fragile material with strong properties – created sub-territories broken down into new shapes with significant voids. The ceramic porcelain map fragments, hung up with nothing more than sewing pins that can unravel at any moment, creates an experience of fragility and chaos, while the planned nature of the installation represents the coherence that accompanies a new building process.
*The Territorial Continuity installation is site-specific. Therefore, the number of objects, including their size and hanging characteristics, will be determined according to location and space specifications.
.jpeg)
Area Cells, 2024
Installation of porcelain and sandstones
Delving deeper into my search for belonging on the destruction/rebuilding spectrum, I created a layered installation from clumps of sandstone that had detached from a shoreside precipice. Sandstone has vague strength properties and a rich local history as a natural building resource. Attempting to breathe new life into naturally ruined material within the confines of my studio, I inserted unused porcelain objects from my previous installation into the crevices for reinforcement. Yet while seemingly cohesive, it remains unclear if the insertion of ceramic material succeeds in creating structural stability.
