Falling Man

From the Artist: While the Covid-19 Pandemic has been both tragic and debilitating, for me, it also allowed for many solitary hours of creative time. In fact, in 2020 I made many sculptures which I may otherwise not have done. My work is primarily concerned with the relationship of humanity and nature. I conceive of an expanded concept of “Nature” as embodying all existence, both the seen and unseen, socio-political events, daily occurrences, as well as private intuitions that are made concrete through creative action. My objects are places of remembrance where multiplicities of associations take place. Most recently these have been concerned with issues of the human condition.

In recent ceramic sculptures, abstracted figures -- made from cut twigs -- are impressed into wet clay. As I investigated, the figures kept running, fleeing, tumbling, searching, moving away from and towards something else. They moved across landscapes, towards glowing buildings/edifices, systemized structures/ societies, which both beckoned them and somehow dominated them. The figures were present, yet also in spirit form, floating and dissolving in diaphanous light and shimmering waters. Twigs became fathers, mothers and children. They became surrogates, rather like small children’s dolls, playing out a deeply psychological fiction of desperately searching for “something”. Something hopeful, yet presently out of reach. Something eternally becoming… Within the context of the pandemic, my abstracted work serves as a metaphor for both the anxieties and aspirations toward the future.