lalaland | city of angels
Relocating to downtown Los Angeles in 1990 from a small lakeside resort in British Columbia Canada was a life game changer. This radical geographic shift came to represent an opportunity to witness / experience issues formerly only exposed to at arms length - social hierarchies, varying forms of suppression and radicalized discrimination, formidable basic life challenges, illiteracy, an invisible work force be that in LA’s downtown garment district sweat shops or lined up on mansioned Beverly Hills street corners every weekday morning, blindness to incomprehensible homelessness - and for the first time experienced overt gender inequality and sexual harassment in the workplace - oh... and lets not forget to include ageism, yet I was far from what I considered old. Following are select projects undertaken during the Nineties that were a responsive visual reaction..
1+1=2
Chalkboard with letters that spell out ‘Fight Illiteracy', folding chair with artificial turf
Change
120” X 10”
Globe refinished as a blackboard mounted on the top of an unreachable 12 ft pole with a chalk stick hanging on a string.
Mixed Messages
Installation:
Brewery Arts Complex, Los Angeles
3 neon units which randomly flash altering the sequencing and greater conceptual content of the text messaging
Seat of Supression
28” x 28” x 54”
Steel chair with mounted reclaimed leather horse blinders, faux fur seat pillow, cast wax hands and feet in crouched position
Traces
4” x 4’ x 2.5”
Five cast paraffin wax blocks embedded with paper strips having text similar to those found in product packaging such as 'inspected by' typically referencing assembly or production line workers.
Knowledge Isn’t Everything
28” x 23” x 7.25”
15 volume set of re-purposed and rebound vintage books
This project involved solicitation of written content from inmates at the California Institution for Women incarcerated for having killed their significant others as a result of domestic violence. Their responses were inserted into a set of 14 re-bound 'Books of Knowledge' the pages of which were blank with the exception of one double page spread that was culled and reproduced from the original books.
Due to the timeless content of this original project, I have resurrected and re-presented it in different formats: 2013 - Fly on the Wall and in 2022 Behind Closed Doors.
Black + Blue
Installation | Collaboration with
video artist David Beckman
Lime Gallery, CalArts, Valencia CA
Dimensionalized blueprint setting of a generic living room setting intending to stimulate dialogue on domestic violence influences.
In Pursuit Of
78” x 12” x 12”
Fiberglass mannequin form filled with white chalk, with neon halo and pair of high heel shoes
Hello My Name is Eve
32.5” x 24” x 24”
Re-upholstered steno chair with silk-screened text on canvas and rotating high heel shoes replacing traditional casters.
Not Tonight Dear - I Have a Headache
22” x 22” x 32”
Diverse everyday reclaimed objects mounted within a triangular cage-like form that can be secured onto a head with a water bottle chin strap.
eden | techno gardens
By the mid 1990’s the age of communications technology had already infiltrated the masses, leading to the creation of a body of work cross-referencing the shift taking place, raising questions as to how this related personally, but to the world around me including the environment itself. The work expresses a tension between disillusionment and hope - between the natural and technological world - between human potency and manual labour.
Ambidextrous
108” x 72” x 8”
Five re-purposed garden tools, circuit boards
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Gallery installation
Window installation:
Lankershim Arts Centre, North Hollywood
Polyurethane foam, natural desiccated branches, fluorescent lighting, re-purposed garden tools with circuit boards
New Growth
Installation: Detours - 18th Street
Arts Complex, Santa Monica, CA
Telecom wire, circuit boards
Inbetween
12” x 34” x 60”
Re-purposed conveyor rack replacing rollers with square circuit boards
Tic Toc
Window installation:
Architectural Interventions, Full Moon Gallery, downtown Los Angeles
Suspended re-purposed conveyor rack with circuit boards, deteriorated shovel remains, natural branch replacing shovel handle, vintage staff time clock with battery operated accelerated spinning clock hands, open vintage pocket watch
Cultivating the Future
40” x 30” x 26”
Natural desiccated branches, circular circuit boards positioned as though leaf replacements
Cultivating the Future - Iris
38” x 30” x 24”
Grouping of four units consisting of circular circuit boards, aluminum rods topped with rubber gloves appearing to grow out of a base circuit panel
Cultivating the Future - Marigolds
18” x 18” x 18”
Circular circuit boards on aluminum rods with rubber gloves and electronic lighting components appearing to be growing out of a large base circuitry panel
Cultivating the Future - Turf
6.25" x 8.25" x 5"
Circuit board, electronic wiring components
consumed | consumer culture
The cross-border move to LA prompted a focus on aspects of personal life that over time involved the accumulation of too much 'stuff'. This led to the creation of a body of work specifically focused on aspects of consumer culture, conspicuous consumption and contemplation of the consequences.
Dr[owning]
Installation: Works Festival,
Manulife Shopping Centre, Edmonton, AB
Thirteen cast concrete anchors (bakers dozen) embedded with a diversity of misc everyday objects were installed in a vacant retail space in a downtown mall. Neon text spelling out the word ‘DROWNING’ was mounted at the top of surrounding walls within the space to create an all encompassing and visually immersive underwater atmosphere. Neon tones of the letters ‘DR’ were different from the letters ‘‘OWNING’ conceptually underscoring the artwork intentions.
Gone Fishing
Fishing pole with a large hot pink / violet neon hook
Power Shopping
Street installation: Venice, CA
Reclaimed shopping cart outfitted
with headlights, battery, jumbo tires and
a Denver boot
We’ve Got Your Number
Installation Colorado University Art Gallery Boulder - Vice Chancellor's Invitational
Installation consisted of fourteen hunting decoys that were vacuum metallized in pink and blue colors to reference gender targeting. They were placed inside of neon rings creating pools of blue light with one decoy left in it’s natural coloration.
Cradle to the Grave
Reclaimed shopping cart with an altered base rocker panel replacing the wheels. Cart Included a suspended electroplated glass carrot.
The Taste Test
Reclaimed shopping cart that was converted into a cage with attached test tubes. The only remnant in the cage were the remains of a rat’s skull.
