How do you describe your own art practice?
At the moment, I’m thinking of my practice as an alibi of sorts.
I always want to channel the particular type of affect that emerges in the image-complex I find myself within. With some pieces, that ends up being, like, the redistribution of an aesthetics of office-culture, fantasy-fable, and horror genre getting mashed together, but that alibi remains pretty open-ended; it doesn’t exclude, say, the speculative fiction novella, K-Y, that I published with Genderfail in 2019 or the music projects I’m releasing later this year.
Femme Brother Printer, 2019
Brother laser printer, greenware, steel, chicken bones, plasticine, wash rags, charcoal
Which question or theme is central in your work?
Something like the libido of the object, probably. Sometimes that ends up being about transness; other times it ends up being about language; other times it ends up being about power.
Body, 2018
Galvanized steel bucket, rope, resin
What was your first experience with art?
My mom worked from home when I was growing up, she was an editor for children’s books at the time so there were always illustrated books piled everywhere. I had a lot of access to the playfulness found in that world of imagery early on.
Good News, 2020
Polyester, igneous rock
What is your greatest source of inspiration?
Usually music in one form or another. I came up playing in a certain DIY circuit in the US in the early 2010s–the relations that form on dance floors and in warehouse spaces and in cities have been really important for me in thinking about how an audience experiences anything, but I also spend a lot of time thinking about, like, ‘90s normie Hollywood cinema and how it used soundtrack to shape affect distributed through that medium at that time.
Silence of the Lambs (1991) as Audience, 2019
12'17" 4-channel audio, acrylic, aluminum, carpet, steel, chicken bones, wash rags, 5-gallon bucket, plasticine, charcoal
What do you need in order to create your work?
Mostly, just time and space; currently, I also need material.
Sara, 2021
Aerosol paint on nylon, installed at Vent Space, Baltimore, MD, USA
What work or artist has most recently surprised you?
I feel like this question is best for historical rediscoveries, maybe like Karl Valentin’s early 20th century object-jokes, but I also like to think about the artists I regularly collaborate with, like Vijay Masharani and Jordan Loeppky-Kolesnik, who I think incorporate surprise into their whole methodology. I think I’m attracted to artists with practices that function this way in general, especially thinking of Hannah Black, Christopher K. Ho, Carolyn Lazard, and Jade Kuriki Olivo.
Dysphoria i, 2020
5-gallon bucket, wood, acrylic latex, wire
