Master's Thesis: Skins of My Former Selves
May 2016
Skins of my Former Selves brings together handmade paper sculpture, intaglio prints, and an editioned artist book that uncover and explore the interior landscapes of dark emotion. Images and sculptures are manipulated and reinterpreted to uncover the remnants and remains of an emotional past, and bridge the gap between corporeality and complex emotion. By presenting the surface of handmade paper as body, environment, and psychic space, the objects in the exhibit reveal different iterations of thoughts and coping mechanisms.
Confined within transparent walls, a life-size handmade paper humanoid sculpture lies in the fetal position- a physical state that simultaneously signals vulnerability, protection, and instinct. In the same line of sight, an expandable artist book of photogravure prints expands and aligns itself to reveal a surreal cavern of darkness. Approaching the complex states of depression and introspection, the sculpture and prints represent the decline into desolation and the triumph of self savior.
Through the physical making process, these works have come to serve as surrogate vessels for emotion and memory.
