Blood Banquet

(𝓐 𝓒𝓪𝓴𝓮 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓔𝓿𝓮𝓻𝔂 𝓞𝓬𝓬𝓪𝓼𝓲𝓸𝓷) 2022-2023

My primary medium is mixed-media sculpture and installation. I use foam, acrylic paint, spackle, and textured mediums to create wounded, gory cakes. The use of inedible materials to make what is generally an edible form allows for a surreal tension between the materials and subject, leading to discomfort and sensory confusion. 

The cakes act as a vessel for disfigurement and violence, while at the same time maintaining the enticement and beauty of a dessert. This relationship between the gorgeous and the grotesque speaks to the connection between pain and pleasure, and our pull as human beings towards both destruction and celebration. 

Inspired by contemporary sculptors such as Doreen Garner and Glenn Martin Taylor, the cakes are tactile and organic, seeming to bleed and ooze from their cavities. In the installation, additional textile elements are dyed using traditional Japanese Shibori. Shibori is a technique in which fabric is tightly bound and/or stitched before it is dyed to create patterns. This method speaks to the “handmade” and repetitive quality of certain injuries and infections, as these specific wounds draw on my own experiences with self-harm. 

The photographic images on the walls of the installation are large-scale prints of the inside of my stomach and throat, which were acquired recently from an endoscopy seeking to diagnose my experiences with gastroparesis, a condition which is characterized by chronic vomiting.

The cakes are carefully constructed artisanal objects of indulgence and decadence gone awry. They operate as a means through which pain is brought to the surface and transformed through the act of making. 

JAPANESE SHIBORI (しぼり)

In the installation, textile elements are dyed using traditional Japanese Shibori methods. Shibori is a technique found all over the world in which fabric is tightly bound, folded and/or stitched before it is dyed to create patterns.

 Last summer, I traveled to Kyoto, Japan on an advanced study grant to research these textile dyeing techniques and learn the processes in hands-on workshops. The method I am using here is based on my research of Sekka Shibori and Ne-Maki Shibori, which each involve specific ways of folding and pinching the fabric before it is placed in the dye. 

I choose to incorporate these elements in my work because they are repetitive and have a handmade, traditional craft quality to them, similar to both sewing and skin picking. My wounds are made by my hand, repetitious and compulsive. However, through the processes of creation and Shibori, my actions are transformed from something destructive into something beautiful.