Writing an artist statement is a self-conscious exercise. But with this body of work, Reliquaries, I tried to be as unselfconscious as possible; to use materials intuitively and nonjudgmentally.

Now that I have some distance from this series, I can see it is about the
death of perfectionism. It¹s anti-craft using materials associated with fine craftsmanship.

What I had previously thought of as suitable materials for art collapsed in my mind. I put substances that cost $2000 per pound next to scraps destined for the landfill. Woven silk was buried to allow microbes
to collaborate in the artistic process. Pieces that had taken me a year to make were taken to a gravel pit where I shot and burned them.

Having had my revenge against preciousness, the work evolved to something more peaceful. A funeral, of sorts. Forms traditionally reserved for the highly-crafted resting places of saints' pinky bones have been reassigned to materials usually found at the lowest rung of the art-market hierarchy.

 

 

 

 

 

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