Shift, 2012
Shift: A collaborative installation in FALL SOLOS 2012 at the Arlington Art Center, Arlington, VA.
Oct 3 - Dec 23, 2012 | Time-lapse video from Oct 3 - 19, 2012.
The time-lapse video was displayed as part of the exhibition.

Statement from the exhibition:

Coming from a working class ethic, I am drawn to the history of objects, and have often heard the phrases: "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" and "do what you can with what you have." Shift (or Verkja after Old Norse for "work") began as a performative process in which the jean bags were filled with wood pellets, tied closed, and then piled.

Shift explores the ability to hold onto the (still useful) old and worn, while finding ways to turn them into something new- building from the ashes, in a sense.

Shift also alludes to shift work, and a shift in mentality, mood, or direction, and water and islands and shifting landscapes, whether physical or emotional, personal or communal.

Sand bags hold devastation at bay. Relief efforts, tragedy, and loss come to mind, along with making due, rebuilding, and hope. Using reclaimed and donated jeans for the bags makes this effort more personal. Each pair of these jeans belonged to someone, were worn until no longer useful, and then passed along.

What in our lives do we shore up? What is worth saving? What should we let go? When do we do it ourselves? When do we ask for help? I ask now for your help. The work is up to you. Do what you will. Thanks for lending a hand.

(De)fence, 2004
In (De)fence, I tore down a wall of my own making. I tore down my fence. Wrapping each stone in a piece of my shirt, I gave myself away.

Field, 2003

Field continued the extension of self. Through the repetitive gesture and obsessive task of throwing large blocks of clay, I outlined the circumference of the area under my influence.

Breath(e), 2001

I attempted to contain my exhalations in (approximately 957) paper lunch bags in order to gauge the extension of myself into an enclosed area. This mundane and futile action became methodical, obsessive, and meditative through its repetitiveness. It spoke simultaneously of extension and containment. Within the repetitiveness, within the confinement, I am not contained.

Sphere of Influence, 2003

In Sphere of Influence, I spanned the wall, waving my arms up and down, snow angel fashion, as if to encompass as much as possible. I hopped as high as I could reach, hoping to gain "territory" and tried to increase my normal range by doing the splits while in a headstand. Absurd? Maybe. But, through these simple motions, I gain experience of my physical limitations and the possibility that my physical and psychological ranges are disparate.