awe/agency, Installation shot during Reconstructing Craft: Feminism and Contemporary Ceramics, PNCA Commons, Organized by Sarah Tancred on the occasion of NCECA 2017, Porcelain, audio equipment, video, abortion stories. Image by Sarah Tancred.

The conceptual thread that runs through my work, both sculptural and functional, is the intersection of craft and social justice, specifically reproductive justice.  In each project I explore ways that craft, which has been used by people for communication and communion since the beginnings of human culture, can be used in the movement to change hearts and minds and to create connection between folks around topics that may be seen as incendiary.

I start with minimal, elemental materials such as clay, glaze, wood, metal. I pull from my research on wonder and beauty and pile, grid, suspend or scatter these elements in the gallery or take them out into the street. I work like a poet arranging words, creating a composition connects aesthetics and activism with people.   I inject pointed, direct content into these compositions in order to create vulnerability around topics that be polarizing in other contexts.  Video, audio and/or interactivity further add to the content and atmosphere.

The observation and interaction of the viewer, the connection that may or may not occur, is the final component of the work.