Formation
Found various metal objects, and paint. Variable dimensions, approx. 17 x 16 feet, 2024
Realized during the KC Recology Artist in Residence Program, Seattle, WA
Thoughts on the occasion of the exhibition of my installations and 3-D works in Gleanings:
In the past few months, I came and worked almost daily at the Recology MRF facility, which has become my second art studio. As I worked with these daily harvested materials and objects, I realized that my creative process represents a second or even third phase in their existence —what I think of as a post-formation or continuation of processes that began the moment these objects lost their usefulness or their "thingness" in our daily lives, beyond what’s considered second use or reuse. This posthumous (or rather post-non-humous) phase of decay and obscurity became a potent, in-between space—fertile with unconventional ideas about what constitutes art to me, and encouraging me to push the limits of what artmaking is. The process of transformation, or un/becoming, for the materials I’ve collected, was elevated, giving them a new post-life purpose.
This led me to revisit the concept of facture—a term in art that refers to the visible traces left by the making process. Facture captures the idea that every mark, fold, or scar on a surface reveals its history. The materials I work with, often discarded or damaged, already carry these marks from their previous lives. They’ve been shaped by wear and tear, abandonment, and decay. When I incorporate these objects into my work, I see myself extending their journey, layering new transformations onto what’s already there. In a way, facture becomes a conversation between the past and the present—between what the object once was and what it’s becoming now.
Furthermore, when I look at the metal objects, certain beauty and fragility emerge in these otherwise rigid forms, once they’ve been crumpled and flattened. Everything here has been mistreated and discarded, deemed unnecessary, but in this abandonment, these materials take on new meanings. Working with them inspires a deep sense of interconnectedness — a connection not just to the objects themselves, but to the people who once used them and the histories they hold.
This process is intimate, and often intense physically, psychologically, and emotionally. These materials mirror us — marked by time, shaped by actions, constantly evolving. Through them, I explore the tension between creation and destruction, utility and obsolescence, and how all these processes reflect our shared human experience.