Pronged Collar

BFA Alumni

Major: Sculpture

Graduation Year: 2017

Artist Statement:

My work can be characterized by the application of damage upon a body or an abstracted bodily form. Working with the concept of trauma (especially of a sexual nature) inevitably involves and intimates the body, regardless of the presence or absence of its physical manifestation or imitation. My practice explores the relationship between the body and power; it scrutinizes the violence of objectification within passive and aggressive actions. Othering is proposed as the prerequisite for violence; therefore if empathy is the antithesis of othering, it must be deemed the remedy to violence. My objective is to eradicate the divide between the physical body and the conscious individual in an attempt to restore empathy. Contemplating perceptions of passivity, activeness, dominance, and submission, the work becomes a conduit through which the viewer can experience abjection and suffering as the simulated victim, bystander, or aggressor (at times coinciding) in an attempt to encourage a sense of accountability and challenge fatalism. It depicts the actions performed upon bodies when empathy is replaced with entitlement. These actions and their effects on the individual illustrate the tribulations of living without agency; of having one’s entire entity compressed into a tool, a toy, a weapon, a concept, or simply matter. This compulsion to explicate and anatomize violence is inspired and informed by my own experiences with trauma. Though alienating in its experiential nature, pain is a ubiquitous phenomenon and thus can be easily sympathized with. By giving pain a physical form, the work offers a means by which one can interpret violence and trauma. The viewer is forced to assess their role(s) within the complexities of systemic violence; herein the path to empathy, healing, and personal accountability becomes clearer.