Using a sewing machine, fabric, and paint on raw canvas, and inspired by aerial-view landscape drawings and maps, I invent "plots" that are neither true abstractions nor complete landscapes, but navigate between these interpretative poles. With a limited palette and through an improvisational approach, these large-scale works hint at an unfamiliar, impossible space—a space that allows viewers to detach and contemplate their relationship to the external world. I seek to connect the dichotomy of the cold, analytical masculine subject with the appropriation of traditionally feminine materials, adopting the sewing machine as a mechanically precise drawing tool.
The four recent works from 2018 are taken from my memory of visiting these particular places in Aleppo and Damascus in 2006, combined with imagining what they would look like today after the destruction.
In the series of stitched works from 2011–2012, I researched the evolution of urban landscapes and how it ties to memory, focusing on New York City's topographical evolution. I am interested in exploring how we define ourselves in relation to the built environment around us, where buildings within the urban context interact with one another and allow individuals to create a narrative of who they are—past, present, and future.
Our memory and identity are forever changed when buildings and monuments are destroyed through war, natural disaster, or urban planning. The subsequent rebuilding, whether "as it once was" or through complete modern reconstruction, ultimately suppresses memory while seemingly creating a sense of utopia. I use Google Earth and archival images to collect my data and use this information as a starting point for creating this invented series of urban renewal projects. The works are created through improvisation, pointing to a heterotopic vision of New York that is neither here nor there—an unreality based on a utopian-inspired ideal.
Related Press:
Installation images, Jane Lombard Gallery, New York, 2018
Installation images, CAS Arts Center, Livingston Manor, NY 2010