BOOK ARTS
(Un)Broken, 2023-2024. 3 tiered box with ceramic weight plates and star accordion book. (Un)Broken is a three tiered box that the viewer opens and unpacks. A cast ceramic weight plate, bifurcated and divided in a tray is the first thing you encounter after removing the lid. The second layer reveals a star accordion book that magnetically clasps into place. The reflective paper end pages function almost like gym mirrors for the sequence of body builders, each maneuvering weights. The first and last images are both open and vulnerable self-portraits. I love that center (or heart) of this artist book is this sequence of images that speak to the idea of time under tension, carrying the weight, hiding, performing. The final tray is the weight made whole again and the circular form of the plate unified. I would say that a lot of the work on view in some part speaks to that level of hiding. Either my physical body for the way it felt misaligned with society and personal expectations of “manliness” and/or aspects of my identity, like my sexuality as a gay man. Coming out in 1994 when representations were stereotyped, cliched caricatures of what being queer looked like but never went deeper and info was hard to come by. The political turn (that part of) the country took this week made me think of what I know of the Reagan era. Prosperity for some while turning back the clock on rights and freedoms for others.
(Un)Broken, 2023-2024. 3 tiered box with ceramic weight plates and star accordion book. A few years back on a return flight I sketched out a design for an ambitious artist book construction beyond my own level of skill. This project had been one of the many things that rattle around in my head, and kept coming up to the surface. After receiving some faculty development funds to cover tutoring I started working with Erin Maurelli to bring this project to life. Erin and I were first colleagues as adjunct professors at Augsburg but have since become a studio neighbors and a dear friend too. Erin is a Tamarind trained printer and dynamo book artist that has been such a joy to develop this project with!
My work invites reflection and interiority, often denied to men, socially conditioned as stoic and restrained. The intimacy of the book and box forms provide a repository for those repressed feelings and emotions. The tactile and playful forms invite engagement and discovery. Reimagining weight plates and dumbbells as delicate ceramic or plaster forms provides a visual connection but also positions these as stand-ins for idealized bodies, strength, signifiers of weight in many different forms. The box’s dividers and trays work as partitions and layers that serve to compartmentalize, reflecting socially sanctioned masculine strategies. While Queer erasure is being brought to bear on society through sweeping attempts to remove markers, records, and deny the existence of queer people, the objects I am making serve as lasting memorials and mini-archivesof the hidden histories of queer people and gay men that run parallel to our understanding of men and masculinity.