I am pleased to announce the graduate exhibition is on display at California State University Northridge Art Galleries, until May 25, 2024. Here is the guide to the individual works featured in the gallery installation. For purchase inquiries, send me a message.
This installation combines reclaimed, natural materials with remnants of human ingenuity to explore the fraught relationship between humans and nature. Repurposed objects such as lumber, metal, and textiles bear a patina of place and time; spontaneous interactions of dirt, tannins, minerals, and fungus celebrate the biological cycles of growth and decomposition. I emboss recycled, hand-pressed paper, recording fallen vegetation and rotting wood as residual ghosts, each step linked to the reincarnation of trees. The paper’s structural and metaphorical fragility contradicts the architectural symbols of protection they emulate—the bark of an oak, the bird’s nest, and a home’s fence.
Gallery installation diagram: Forests are noisy places, but people don't listen.
Individual works:
1. Old Agoura, embossed, recycled hand-pressed paper, dirt, and tannin stains, 2024
2. The Hidden Cost of Deforestation, embossed, recycled hand-pressed paper (financial statements), shredded metal credit cards, 2024
3. Silent Spring (homage to R.L. Carson), hand-pressed recycled paper (multiple pulps), embossed with vegetation and bark texture, 2024
4. The Forest for the Trees (no.2), recycled hand-pressed paper, bark residue, seeds, 2024
5. Everything But the Carbon Sink (no.1), embossed, hand-pressed recycled paper, clay slip, 2022
6. Everything But the Carbon Sink (no.5), embossed, hand-pressed recycled paper, pulverized oak galls, 2024
7. The Forest for the Trees (no.1), recycled hand-pressed paper with tannin & sap stains, 2024
8. Desert Dumpsite (La Quinta, CA), recycled hand-pressed paper embossed with rusted paint cans and junk metal, antique glass shards, 2024
9. Bunkhouse Mattress, recycled hand-pressed paper with rusted metal stains, mattress springs, kapok pod fiber, 2024
10. The Bed We Made, cut birch and aspen tree branches, twigs, pine needles, leaves, grape vines, dried grasses and flowers, kapok tree pod fiber, fallen tree seed pods, paper leaves, human hair, telephone cables, kiln coils, bicycle innertube, wool and cotton fabric scraps, yarn, jute twine, hand-pressed recycled paper, 2024
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