My subject matter involves the representation of hyperemotional experiences concerning relationships. By placing the viewer on the periphery of the scene, I invoke a sense of impotent voyeurism from my audience. I am interested in exploring concepts such as mental illness, the complexities of symbiotic and parasitic relationships, and the cyclical control of perception that dominates the family unit. Each generation is a product of its predecessor because of how traditions, social behaviors, theology, and expectations are subscribed from parent to child to their future child. These subconscious familial and cultural constructions of the self guide the formations of the characters in my images.
I am intrigued by the role of domesticity and how it plays into the power of rituals that we either have or seek in our everyday lives, and the ultimate psychological cost of that desire. These different states of the psyche are portrayed through the symbolic use of costumes and props that engulf the body. The body-appendages work both to protect and attack the figure. Often these contaminating forces conceal the face to draw focus on ideas of transformation, hybridity, and surrogacy while generalizing the figure. By objectifying and making the body less specific, the viewer is able to pour themselves into the photographs.
Formally, my pieces represent Baroque theatrical tableaus through a combination of individual photographic parts in order to imitate the way that an experience is perceived and how a memory is built; juxtaposing different forced perspectives with sensorial moments. Overall, the constructed images spark a discourse about relationships while directing the viewer through a visual dialogue of a mediated, empathetic experience of existing in a present state of mind.
