ways to endure
                                                                                                                                                MFA thesis exhibition
                                                                                                                                                                2023
           


                                              






                         





 
                                          






                




                                        



              
                

                                             

               
                  
 



                                                               






                 




                                                      



                                                             







                                        
                     





                       




                  





                                      






                        



                                     




                                                




                                      





                              




Our bodies, these vessels, hold us.
Our skin, though soft and vulnerable in its
own way, protects all that it contains.
It hides our body’s more precious contents
behind a politicized exterior landscape.
It regenerates to heal wounds, leaving
reminders of a life lived, adapts to account
for environmental changes, and bears the
weight of others assumptions and
preoccupations  with what lies beneath.
It reveals and conceals us. There is a distinct
difference between just existing in and actively
occupying one’s body. What does it take to
ensure you feel comfortable enough to reveal
yourself beyond your shell? Where, or when,
or what, or who, is home for you?
What has it taken to bring yourself here,
and for how long will you stay?



ways to endure is an installation of photographic based inquiry
through light, steel, emulsion, glass and healing welted skins.
Topographic satellite imagery of flood prone peaks and
valleys within my rural home county are abstracted by a
Google Earth glitch. Acupuncture needles are a reminder
of sorrow  and relief, and an indicator of boundary
and location.  The fresnel lenses' historical
responsibility as a beacon, a tool of survival
and navigation, suggests an alternate way of
seeing as it works to subvert the function
and gaze of a traditional photographic lens.
It offers safety in abstraction.


-----------

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       materials:
glass casted fresnel lenses, silver gelatin emulsion
prints on steel mesh, welded steel stands and frames,
digital images on draft vellum, concrete supports,
metal remnants on steel shelves,
plaster and silica casting shells