Bringing Physicality to Isolation Through Material Interventions
I explore the feelings of isolation from one's surroundings in which emotions of helplessness, discomfort, and suffering occur. How might the tension between mental turmoil and one's physical surroundings get translated into a visual image, specifically using a mixture of mediums and processes? My material interventions of enveloping, piercing, obscuring, function as metaphors for the emotional complexity of aloneness. Despite many unique forms of isolation, how can I make these feelings tangible? How can I represent the anger that comes out of that isolation?I began collage, as if a mind picking and distorting a story. Then to create more tension, I experimented with materials. The cathartic process of violence released anger as art. Formal elements of opacity and transparency, allowed me to explore deterioration and destruction. Using my own photography, collage, transfer paper, clay, staples, plastic, and paint, with actions of tearing, ripping, covering allowed me to violate the images I chose. I tested ways to physically separate the viewer from my art; adding physicality to my work encourages a feeling of manipulation.