Yell I-IV, 2021, mixed media, 22x15".
These pieces contain silkscreen, solvent transfer, photo lithography, spray paint, and paint pen. Starting with screenshots of digital news stories, I created collages that showcased my frustrations with the way Mississippi was handling COVID - namely, the removal of restrictions about COVID.
Yell I, 2021, mixed media, 22x15"
Yell II, 2021, mixed media, 22x15"
Yell III, 2021, mixed media, 22x15"
Yell IV, 2021, mixed media, 22x15"
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Vent I and II, 2021, mixed media, 22x15".
These pieces contain silkscreen, solvent transfer, collage, spray paint, and paint pen. Starting with clippings from from newspapers and screenshots of digital news stories, I created collages that showcased my frustrations with the way Mississippi was handling COVID - namely, the removal of restrictions about COVID.
Vent I, 2021, mixed media, 22x15".
Vent II, 2021, mixed media, 22x15".
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What I Take In Ten Weeks, 2021, drypoint, 7.5x11"
This series catalogues the pills I took each week for ten weeks, containing an edition of 5 for each week as well as an edition of 3 of all the layers printed together. I utilized only one copperplate while making this series - between each edition I would sand the plate down and re-carve the same pills in a different arrange. This highly monotonous task was meant to represent the almost ritual aspect that medicine-taking gains when it become a regular part of life. As well, with the combined layers in the prints as well as the plate tone showing previous carvings, I wanted to show the build up over time of medicine in the body, of the muscle memory associated with taking the pills, and how many pills are taken over a short period of time for a person who is chronically ill (it's a lot).
Week One, 2021, drypoint, 7.5x11"
Week Two, 2021, drypoint, 7.5x11"
Week Three, 2021, drypoint, 7.5x11"
Week Four, 2021, drypoint, 7.5x11"
Week Five, 2021, drypoint, 7.5x11"
Week Six, 2021, drypoint, 7.5x11"
Week Seven, 2021, drypoint, 7.5x11"
Week Eight, 2021, drypoint, 7.5x11"
Week Nine, 2021, drypoint, 7.5x11"
Week Ten, 2021, drypoint, 7.5x11"
What I Take In Five Weeks, 2021, drypoint (5 layers), 7.5x11"
What I Take In Ten Weeks, 2021, drypoint (10 layers), 7.5x11"
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Discard, Disregard, 2021, coptic-stitch book with inkjet photos, 11x7.5x1"
This book features 19 images of discarded masks around the University of Mississippi campus in the fall of 2021, when the university (and many others) began relaxing restrictions on social distancing. I noticed trends in where I most often found the masks - in the grass or sidewalks by building doors and in parking lots, seemingly discarded as soon as the person was outside of the still-mandated classrooms. The discarding of these masks spoke of extreme disregard of pandemic precautions, in my mind.
Discard, Disregard, 2021, coptic-stitch book with inkjet photographs on Stonehenge, 11x7.5x1"
Discard, Disregard, 2021, coptic-stitch book with inkjet photographs on Stonehenge, 11x7.5x1"
(external link: YouTube)
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Final Hours, 2021, digital collage, 3:2.2 ratio
15 collages
15 collages
This series utilizes screengrabs of news coverage of the January 6th Capitol Hill Insurrection. It examines the sensationalist news coverage of the event, as well as how sensationalist news coverage contributes to civil unrest. Additionally, the jumbled compositions, in black and white and in color, speak to the confusion felt by the public as well as the overwhelming process of trying to find out the 'truth' of the event. The unlimited access of the web and its constantly updating news cycle creates digital fatigue and desensitizes the viewer to the violence they are viewing, even in the case of an insurrection.
I also experimented with printing these collages in different ways.
First, I took one of the collages (Composition 10) that I'd already broken into 12 fragments for the book series, and turned them into silkscreen prints. During the process of printing the laser films, the printer began to run out of toner. This left growing spots of absence and obliteration that I felt actually supported my theme more than it hindered it, so I moved forward with these films. I link the loss of information in the heavy silkscreen application and the fragmentation processes to the earlier mentioned concepts of information passing and generation loss, but also to the idea of white noise.
Second, I created a 15 volume series of perfect-bound books. Each book features laserjet fragmented prints of each of the 15 collages. The cheap toner lifts off the page with use, as a visual metaphor for the passing of information from person to person as well as of generation loss, a term for the loss of quality in an image as it is copied and saved over and over again.
Third, I created a quick color laserjet booklet, titled Burn Book, and made a video of me flipping through the pages of the book and then setting it on fire. This represented the act of consumption in fast-paced news cycles as well as the seemingly sudden obliteration of past events in order to move on to the next major news subject.
Final Hours: Composition 10 abstracted, 2021, silkscreen, 8x8" each
Final Hours: Volumes 1-15, 2021, laserjet perfect-bound books, 11x8.5x.0.25" each
Burn Book, 2021, still from video.
Burn Book, 2021, still from video.
Burn Book, 2021, still from video.
Burn Book, 2021, still from video.
Final Hours: Volume 1 Flip-through Video
(external link: YouTube)
(external link: YouTube)
Burn Book Flip-through and Burning Video
(external link: YouTube)
(external link: YouTube)
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Hundred Days, 2021, digital collage, 3:2.2 ratio
30 collages
This series utilizes screengrabs of news coverage of President Biden's first hundred days in office. It examines the sensationalist news coverage of his early presidency, as well as how sensationalist news coverage contributes to ongoing unrest and antagonism across the country. The jumbled compositions, in black and white and in color, speak to the overwhelming feeling of keeping up with news. The bombardment of news on our phones 24/7 contributes to feeling overwhelmed; however, when we purposefully look up news on a certain topic, we become overwhelmed digging through the digital soup of organizations, sources, fact checking sites, and conflicting, sensationalized headlines. The unlimited access of the web and its constantly updating news cycle creates digital fatigue and desensitizes the viewer to the violence they are viewing.
