STATEMENT OF WORK

At the heart of my recent work lies an exploration of concrete as a post-Soviet artifact: A vessel for collective and individual memories, a brutal demonstration of monumental strength, and a register of its own instability. In my sculptures I engage the tactile and structural qualities of various materials until they begin to resemble the structure of memory.  There is a paradox that underlies many things we believe are static—that despite their apparent immobility they are subject to massive forces, that stasis is an inherently delicate state, that they are doomed to distort or crumble. Just as concrete needs support to withstand stress, so too does memory. My work has led me to believe that memory is supported by a scaffold of images and symbols.

When I work, I keep in mind the tension of a snapshot, which has a static surface, but betrays the presence of dynamic forces underneath. What is recorded—a glimpse into the past—may be both real and imagined, fragmented and cohesive. I think also about the way a world can be suggested and reconstructed from an archaeological fragment. I work in series to reinforce that process of reconstruction or projection. 

These physical and mental processes bear resemblance to the architecture of memory, where our recollections take the shape of old buildings, with layers of meaning, codes, hidden chambers, and foundations.  Sufficiently symbolic or suggestive, small details can connote entire worlds.