Garden of Nineveh

Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, September 2008-January 2009

My art-making process involves assembling multiple objects or materials into large, solid blocks. In the process of cutting into the resulting block to create slices of the amalgamated materials, I revitalize the encased materials and reassign them new meanings, each consistent with every new body of work. My recent use of resin serves as a metaphor for human desire. The lustrous and colorful material produces glowing, translucent images that communicate the seductive cravings inherent in the human condition. Buried within the resin are symbols that further reflect my perspective on both the physical and spiritual qualities of yearning.

“The Garden of Nineveh”, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, consists of two complex elements. Anchoring the work is Bitter, an immense 14 x 20 foot wall sculpture constructed of resin, aluminum foil, shredded money and cast thorns that project out into the physical space. The lush, verdant colors evoke a fantastical foil-embedded forest consisting of ten, modular vertical panels. Each is laden with protruding thorn elements that are strongly compelling and seductive, yet also oppressive. Viewers are simultaneously attracted forward and visually admonished by the menacing points. Drawing near, viewers are lured closer by faint sounds emanating from within the thorns. Softly whispering, pre-recorded voices utter a litany of expressed wishes and desires. In order to try to decipher the murmurings, the viewer’s proximity must be mere inches from the visually perilous thorns. The lower, horizontal portion completes the narrative with four, connected horizontal panels embedded with anatomical skeleton parts – skulls, arms and legs – that give view to humanity’s ultimate physical end. The tempting and treacherous landscape of human desire is brought to a clear and inevitable conclusion revealed by the cut-away stratum.

Located directly opposite the wall of the thorn-forest of Bitter is the Counter balancing piece entitled, Sweet. Seductive in a very different manner, Sweet drips with precious amber-colored, sculptural forms over a hexagonal honeycomb pattern. Its inviting honey-sweetness is in direct contrast to the thorny surface of Bitter. Symbolically, the nectar-drops of Sweet represent the longing for the eternal other; the comforting warmth of a transcendent, luxurious state in which all desires can be met. Sweet stands in stark contrast to the prickly world of the forever-longing expressed in Bitter. The viewer finds themselves positioned between these two eternal states.

This dual-part piece continues my penetrating exploration into my work’s structural underpinnings whereby I dismantle and amalgamate various key materials that become symbolic clues to the work’s ultimate message. Slicing through to the “guts”; of the matter, both materially and spiritually, I work to further expose layer after layer of the human quest; the cyclical state of yearning. My intention through process is to expose and reflect on the seemingly inaccessible layers offering insights both visual and metaphoric.