STATEMENT OF WORK

Pattern is an extension of power, of taming nature, a trick of the eye, it turns the unadorned into the fanciful and opulent. Decorative objects are redirection, an illusion of the wealthy, masking flaws and sending carefully crafted messages of rank from its curves and geometries. Taking cues from Gilded Age interior spaces, gardens and American vernacular architecture I appropriate motifs, decorative objects and flora and fauna using screenprinting as a primary medium. These large-scale installations, informed by history and memory, reinvent and reevaluate the past.

Modular matrices printed on paper cover existing architecture, creating illusionary spaces with wallpapers, trompe l’oeil furniture, decorative objects and ornamental plants. Well suited to mimicry and duplication, screen printing is used to its maximalist effect. Each installation is comprised of hundreds or thousands of discrete prints on paper. These spaces allow for personal and collective histories to be retold, rebuilt and reconfigured.

Histories triumphs and tragedies are reframed with each successive generation, mirroring the values and aims of the present. The dysfunction and decay of New England cities replete with its robber barons, organized crime and social issues formed my earliest memories of injustice and hypocrisy. Historical architecture and decorative objects form a complex coded system of social class and power, a web of clues prompting further research. The act of research and making is an effort to come to terms with these mysterious events and mistakes of the past.