Select Works
Porcelain Dress
2022
Porcelain slip, paper towels, yarn
This piece was worn by five dancers, all given the prompt to improvise freely without fear of breaking the dress. Porcelain Dress was an exploration of the body’s capacity for movement in contrast with the fragility and preciousness of a material like thin porcelain tiles. The merging of these two very different mediums produced results that neither could have produced on its own.
Slow Project (Greenware)
2022
White stoneware
Coil built pot, made over the course of two months. Never fired and reclaimed after finishing.
Message etched into the bottom: “I mixed the clay for my project this morning. I felt my size while I was mixing. I felt how small I am compared to this project. I understood that as a challenge for the first time since its conception. What if I am not strong enough? What if I can’t reach the top? What if I get tired quickly, because I have to be standing on step stools and walking around it and etc etc etc. Even picking up the bags of clay that I had mixed felt hard. I am weaker than normal. I look in the mirror and my arms are thin, they hang away from my torso, which also looks smaller than it has in the past. I am worried that I am becoming weaker. Because of my fucking neverending bleeding, because of my lack of appetite and conjunctive gag reflex, because of the mental//emotional strain that I have been under. I am worried that this project is going to take a lot out of me. But that’s the point, I guess. This is supposed to be hard. It is supposed to take time. I am not under the weight of a deadline, so I am allowed to be weak; move at a snail’s pace; give myself many breaks for food and water and rest. This project is about pushing myself outside of my comfort and routine, but it isn’t meant to break me. It is meant to give me new meaning, new motivation, better tools for moving forward. Maybe this project invigorates me…mentally, physically, emotionally. Maybe I put everything I can into this project, and it feels that, and in return, it nurtures me. Maybe it Holds me the way that I Hold it. Gives me space to breathe, builds me up, contributes to my growth. The way that I contribute to its growth. It is a mutually beneficial relationship, between me and my clay. I give it life, it gives me meaning. I give it form, it gives me structure. I make it taller, it makes me stronger. I hope that that type of communication is present this term. I hope that I am in a mutually beneficial relationship with this project, and that that practice makes it easier to be in mutually beneficial relationships outside of the studio. I hope it loves me the way that I love it.”
Look but don't touch 2025
Interactive gallery space/performance set in my college apartment. This was a durational performance that included four performers and four sculptural pieces. The pieces were a combination of ceramic, metal, and fabric and were all meant to convey private and intimate moments when in contact with a body. Audience members were invited to walk through the space at any pace they pleased, and sit with the performers in their improvisations for as long as they liked. The space was open for an hour. The photos linked below were taken by Katherine Finkelstein on a medium format film camera.
Street Photography