Gallery images including the installed “skins” along with the square panel encaustic pieces.
SKIN
My work frequently explores ideas of safety and protection. I use imagery drawn from skin cells merged with the linings of security envelopes to examine skin as a protective membrane for the body. Through this process, I became interested in the biological realities of skin color: it is determined by varying amounts of melanin and underlying connective tissue, and human genes are adaptive enough to alter pigmentation in response to ultraviolet radiation over approximately 2,500 years. It is a tragic irony that while bodies develop pigmentation as a means of protection from nature, these differences have been weaponized within the social landscape. This violence is the result of fear and hatred—not nature’s processes—and it is this contradiction that led me to create the Skins series.
Other works that share formal or conceptual qualities with my dipped fabrics include Byron Kim’s Synecdoche and Eva Hesse’s Aught. Kim’s work addresses the danger of substituting skin color for the totality of a complex human identity. Hesse’s abstract Aught carries a sense of beauty and emotional resonance that inspired me to think about honoring the cultures referenced in my own work. Unlike either of these artists, my pieces introduce an explicit element of violence. This cruelty is conveyed through nails piercing the dermal fabric and through the hide-like materiality of the surfaces themselves.
While my work investigates skin tone and race, it also acknowledges the historical and ongoing harm inflicted upon bodies marked by difference. As a white artist, I approach this subject with an awareness of my position and responsibility. My intention is not to speak for others, but to confront the systems of fear and brutality that persist, and to consider how art can participate in learning, accountability, and change.