2015 Traffic for Humans, Group Global 3000, Berlin, Germany/NYC, USA
Non-human animal carcasses strewn along cement pavements serve as gruesome reminders of the need for NYC’s 2014 Vision Zero Action Plan-a campaign that aims to reframe vehicular death and injury on city streets as unacceptable. The plan refutes the notion that serious crashes are inevitable; yet, this city-wide urgency to protect life does not appear to extend to non-human animals, like pigeons, whose deaths amass in silence.
Roads Kill is a participatory performance positioned at an intersection in NYC where one such death occurred and, in borrowing from more somber memorial traditions, invites the public to value the life lost by creating a bird from a mixture of flour and water. While buses noisily round corners, cars honk in conversation, and elevated trains cackle across metal tracks, the process of hand sculpting a modern day memento mori is livestreamed to Group Global 3000 in Berlin where participants use the same natural materials to meditate on humanity and the life cycle.
2015 Washed Out, Group Global 3000, Berlin, Germany
In an age of global political upheaval, images of rioting and protest dominate some news channels, while other media outlets continue to preoccupy the public with the latest fashion trends and contrived beauty standards. One such trend is the recent celebration of distressed jeans or denim pants that have been intentionally damaged to look aged. This distressed fashion trend is in juxtaposition to the current widespread emotional distress resulting from systemic oppression, war, poverty and a sleuth of other factors.
Distressed is a participatory installation that invites the viewer to engage with an approximately 4x4 m² wall hanging comprised of a patchwork-style arrangement of upcycled jeans. Flanked on either side by staged photographs of a fictionalized monarch adorned in denim, the installation is meant to feign a regal air. Participants are invited to use the scissors provided as part of the installation to cut into the wall hanging, thereby creating holes that will eventually dismantle the patchworked piece.
Will viewers dare to wield their scissors on the wall hanging? Distressed is a reflection on power structures and civil unrest.
2014 The Art, The Material, And The Sustainability, Group Global 3000, Berlin, Germany
Unmasked is a durational performance which references the ceremonial nature of masks. The interaction between artist and visitor is meant to be a time of "unmasking" oneself or revelation. Visitors will choose one of several predetermined questions to reflect upon and answer while the artist respectfully listens and communicates non-verbally. It is this personal interaction between artist and visitor which will result in an individualized mask or art object. Each visitor will be photographed wearing the resulting mask. In creating a new object together, the mask-making process is also "unmasked" or revealed to the visitor.
