I feel that the way we experience emotion is very similar to nature. Feelings swell and bloom, yet they can just as easily change.. wilting, fizzling out. As humans, we have the urge to control everything around and within us; manipulating the world to satisfy our needs, searching for ways to regulate our emotions. I’ve been coming to find that maintaining control over the things I feel isn’t really possible. Though feelings can be unpredictable and frustrating, they can be simultaneously beautiful, upholding an inexplicable balance. Sometimes we just need to let nature take its course.
Many young feminists feel obligated to defy female stereotypes in their appearance and mannerisms. We feel that avoiding ‘feminine tendencies’ is a statement of defiance. But by purposefully detaching ourselves from the qualities society deems feminine, we assert them as negative qualities. To abolish these gender stereotypes, we must be ourselves— unapologetically. This figure balances material representations of what our culture deems feminine on one side and feminist symbols on the other. At the show, the wicks were lit and the wax melted. Our connection to these stereotypes can be destroyed to make way for more expansive ways of thinking about ourselves.
The “Emotional Armor” series is an ironic use of physical wearable objects for emotional protection. These pieces are meant to be failed attempts at using helmets and padding to protect wearers from emotional harm. The plush felt material highlights their ineffectiveness and plays off traditional associations of softness with comfort.
Inspired by experiences in late adolescence as well as the films Moonrise Kingdom and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, this video and sculpture embody the fear/beauty of losing the ability to experience the world in that curious, childlike, once-so-familiar way. I hoped to create an environmental piece that would feel like a murky memory when experienced. I built a full room fort, hung Christmas lights, and laid down fake grass. Memories we keep fade and merge, and our perception of everything, even the past, is growing and maturing and aging. It’s beautiful but it’s devastating, and that’s what I’m trying to communicate.
The video, in the same manner as the installation, depicts the cloudy merging of places, seasons, and feelings. It was projected inside of the fort.