I combined two areas of interest, which overlap in their meaning and function.
First, I hand built my body in numerous ceramic forms and then exposed them to a slow pit fire burn. The pit fire caused oxidation and other chemical changes to occur, damaging the body with cracks, surface burns and fractures. This damage highlights the body’s inevitable erosion while the intact figure that is left conveys the human desire for permanence.
Second, I created “Combustion,” a life-size neon body, which acts as an intense visual assault leading into the exhibit with the burned sculpture bodies. Neon, with its exaggerated sense of excitement, functions as the initial visual ecstasy to the eyes: a combustion of sight, which serves as the entrance to the disjointed bodies. The neon represents a young flame, captivating and intact.
Then the damaged/decayed bodies start to deteriorate. Now the heat and light of the fire has stressed and eroded the young bodies, revealing how time has eroded them. These splintered, ceramic bodies have experienced bruises and hardships over time, causing them to breakdown. This push/pull of life is how I have formalized my mind’s yearning for youth, yet my body’s unavoidable progression of aging.
