ARTIST STATEMENT

For me an installation is a device, a framework, that allows
me to take objects and their related ideas and associations
out of their familiar context and place them in another so
that my audience can better appreciate and/or understand
these objects and their related ideas and associations.

My current body of work uses this strategy to create site-specific
works out of objects that are familiar to us ~ for example, toys
given away as fast food premiums, m&m candy and Play Doh. The
objects are arranged or presented defining a game board or a
figure. These identifiable elements connect to our experience of
the object generating or prompting a response concerning the
significance of the objects beyond their intended purpose -- for
example, toys are not only toys, they are tools of acculturation.
We identify and identify with the objects because of their familiarity. This familiarity is evidence of their success as a commodity, yet more importantly this familiarity is evidence of their influence as a cultural mechanism for passing on the stamp of our individual, sexual and cultural identity.