Look Upon This Body as a Machine
- About
- Through hand-written algorithms, I connect a painted visual language with the written language of a text document. Each abstract brush stroke in this series was determined by certain elements in the text connected to the painting through “if/then” statements. For example, the number of marks in the linear clusters are determined by the number of letters in each word and the color is decided by the first letter. I work with the text document and the painting simultaneously, following the instructions for each letter and marking it off with my brush on the text as I complete it in the painting. This process results in a secondary text painting I call the "algorithm byproduct.” The texts I work from are official documents—societal relics that have both objectifying and violent language, arguing an inextricable link between those two concepts. I highlight the most incendiary words which become the highest contrast abstract moments in the painting. They hold visual weight in the painting and then become the only legible words remaining in the text document, leaving behind a kind of violent poem for the viewer to contemplate alongside the painted imagery. Finally, in the newest series there is the stark presence of rendered plant forms arising from the abstract elements. They embody the algorithms in nature--as in the fractal of a fern leaf that can be replicated by an iterative function system. These systems have existed long before the advent of the computer and demonstrate that human cleverness – which often justifies our dominion over other living things – is not so different from systems that underlie the natural world. When the viewer considers the natural forms in conjunction with the content of the text, it reminds us that when we relate to nature as an object to be used we extend the same objectifying logic that drives violence against bodies to the entire ecosystem.
Look Upon This Body As A Machine, 2025Oil on Linen90 x 140 inches
I am Dangerous, Too (Harm), 2026Oil on canvas54 x 84 inches
I am Dangerous, Too (Take), 2026Oil on Canvas50 x 40 inches
Automata, 2025Oil on canvas102 x 96 inches
They Are You, 2026Oil on Canvas36 x 70 inches
Live! Live! Living!Oil on Canvas40 x 70 inches
Pomegranate AK (detail), 2026Oil on panel30 x 24 inches
Pomegranate AK (Triptych), 2026Oil on panel30 x 72 inches