May 2014
​Deus ex Machina – Latin for “God from the Machine,” is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly resolved by the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability or object.

Birth and death, development and decay, molecular assemblage and deconstruction, exchange and conservation of energy. Making this work and completing this show, I touched all of these things. A broken elevator meant carrying everything you see down three flights of stairs. Piece by piece they made their way to this room, were assembled, hung. Now, suspended quietly and heavily upon white walls, they resonate a visual and intellectual energy which mirrors the physical effort expended to transport and construct them. 

My process, in sculpture and print, of collaging or assembling various elements together speaks to the construction of matter. I impose organization upon randomness, using my own energy to consolidate and arrange. Thereby I create heavily worked and layered prints and carefully thought out sculptural assemblages. The decrepit aesthetic serves as a reminder of their, and everything’s, inevitable reversion to chaos.

Within the imagery, chaos melds with structure, the organic merges with geometry, illusionistic decay sits alongside actual torn and dirtied material. The scale and imagery chases the sublime, hinting at visions of primordial earth or galactic events. 

A motif of discovery pervades this installation, lending it a subtle narrative quality. There are corners to be turned, a space within a space to be discovered. Black and white leads into color leads into the womb and it starts again. The installation is ordered, but chaos seeps through: a ruined wall, three sound tracks combine chaotically, detritus litters the floor. 

Our show title, Deus ex Machina, became what the whole experience lacked: nobody fixed the elevators, through raw physical effort we fabricated carefully ordered chaos, but in four days we will have to dissemble it all. For better or for worse, the cycle persists.

intaglio, mixed media, drywall

intaglio, mixed media, drywall

intaglio, mixed media, drywall

charcoal drawing with a red light