My work is driven and influenced by ideas around function and its correlation to value in our society. I explore this primarily through photography and video performance in which I manipulate the usability of objects.
In my photographs I work with all functional items. I am interested in altering, or dismantling functionality, and how this interacts with the idea of an object existing outside of how it can serve us. While the photos I create are often a humorous uniting of two objections, they also seek to spark a serious consideration of functionality, value, and disposability in our society.
Currently my video performances focus on ceramic objects and the feminization of everyday items. This is illustrated well within the relationship between us, cows and ceramics. We use the ash of cow bones to create beautiful bone china, and their milk to repair it when it breaks. Beef tallow has also been discovered in ancient makeup alongside tin oxide. All three have a strong tie to the connotation of function as value and examining this exposes the harm and exploitation this definition of value causes.
Throughout my work I consider the systems around us that have created these items and materials I am using, and my role within them. I believe this is something we should also consider outside of objects and things: what systems and situations do we perpetuate through our actions and complacencies?