Everyday: 8/11/15

(bleached coral and used underwear)

Everyday: 7/28/15

No Name to Give (cockroach acrylic paint on canvas) 2015

title will probably be improved, but I was thinking of this fragment of a poem, The Gauze of Flowers, A Love Poem, by Olena Kalytiak Davis

mockup for something yet to come (maybe)

found in the Eatonville Memorial Gardens

Marked, Unmarked (found object) 2015

ricochet

Instead of thinking of my pieces as landing on a specific meaning, or meanings, I think they should ricochet off of ideas, signifiers, and affects - never landing in one place but creating a constellation of connotations.

an object found in a dumpster during roof-work, Winter Park, FL

[then the minutes on the clock went by like seconds]
[the the minutes minutes went wet by by like like seconds seconds]
[‡the‡minutes‡went‡by‡like‡seconds‡]

To find your way among the stars, choose some familiar pattern
as a starting point and gradually work your way from one star
group to another.
Menzel, Donald H.  A Field Guide to the Stars and Planets.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1964. 104.

heat shrink tubing

things that, as of yet don't have, titles... but have a lot of potential 

[materials (so far) - dried mango, cock rings, sheathing, pig hoof, weather alert radio (cut), Starbucks dark roast coffee beans, broken shingles, compass, chicken feet, glacial float copper, light bulb, memory card, liquid tight 90 degree tube, plywood, heat-shrink tubing, and hardware]

[references - snakes, staff/stick/charm, Jim Lambie, André Cadere, time capsules]

:: cache :: lay by :: salt away ::

catalog + time capsule + rations = ???

:: kit :: list :: stock :: survival :: permanence :: share :: store :: measure :: dole ::

diviner (too to the point, but a nice title)

conceptual expressionism

I have decided to do something about the fact that I am drawn to expressionist art (meaning that emotional affect is often the first response one has to the artwork) by finding a way for me to try to use it in my work. This is a quality that I not only admire, but would like to include in my work. This seems pertinent because I have been stating, for some time now, that my work is about the fear and anxiety (emotions) caused by climate change and the hype around it. If this emotion is important for me, then why are my pieces often foregrounded in cool/conceptual remove? This might be a question that leads to a dead end, it may be just another thing I incorporate into my work, or it may be a new direction.
Either way, I am using this post to begin to describe what I mean by "conceptual expressionism" by including artworks that I feel like are parents to how I would like to find my "expression." Broadly, I define contemporary expressionist art as artwork that initially presents viewers with emotional affect first, while longer reads lead to conceptual depth and emotional complexity. It should also be said that (given my interest in fear, anxiety, and death) that most of these works have some relation to the concept of the abject.

Josh Tonsfeldt - Perpetual Summer (tire and fruit) 2011

Bill Conger - the night sweats (wall paper, foil, plastic latex paint) 2009

Michael E. Smith - Dave (helmet shell, pigeon) 2013

Richard Hawkins - Scalp 3 (Remember the wonderful days when "the abject" had the ability to "corrode" hegemony?) (rubber mask, painted paper, pencil and paperclips) 2011

Richard Hawkins - Scalp 13 (Remember the wonderful days when "the abject" had the ability to "corrode" hegemony?) (rubber mask, painted paper, paper clips, shoebox) 2012

Oscar Tuazon - I gave my name to it (steel plate and fluorescent lamps) 2010

Isa Genzken - Hospital (Ground Zero) (artificial flowers, plastic, metal, glass, acrylic, spray-paint, mirror foil, MDF and casters) 2008

Tracy Thomason - Untitled (spray tanner, and presence on paper) 2008

Li Gang - The Big Dipper (tbc) (stones and glue) 2013

Kelly Jazvac - Plastiglomerate and Plastic Samples (detail) (conglomerate rocks gathered on Kamilo Beach with geologist Patricia Corcoran, Hawaii, and ceramic stands) 2013

Jay Heikes - Creeply (dyed porcupine quills and driftwood) 2011

Sterling Ruby - Ashtray 72 (ceramic) 2010

post

a dead coyote on a fence near Lipan, TX, via http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenkuhl/95172104/

a photo I took of some catfish heads I found nailed to a post outside Mazon, IL, circa 2001

Recently, I came across this photo of catfish heads I took in high school, which spurred my investigation into the practice of putting dead things on fences. In the case of the coyote, the carcass is supposed to ward off other coyotes that might kill a farmer's cows - in a similar function as Vlad the Impaler's use of impaled enemies to warn off invading armies.

In the case of the catfish heads there are two possible explanations: 1. as a way of displaying your catches (trophies), or 2. a functional and easy way of cleaning a catfish evidently involves nailing the fish's head to a post to hold it in place while it is cleaned - the head is then cut off and left on the post afterward.

Thinking of these references I decided to take to task these odd bits of yellow expanding foam that I keep finding on the train tracks outside my apartment. The intervention is in a large empty lot (almost a whole block large) in my neighborhood.

Adam Farcus - Horns (intervention and photograph) 2011

So, I hope Horns is at once a trophy, a totem, and an (mythical) omen. What is a trophy or totem for is up for debate - fungus, dicks, disease, industry, abject objects...