Shelf Life

After a long day working in retail, most people can’t wait to punch the clock. Sometimes I, on the other hand, decide to stay after my shift and stage photos. Inspired by some of the great performance artists of the 1960s, I adopt the practice of using my body to convey ideas. After stripping off all my clothes, remote shutter in hand, I climb into a glass case, onto a shelf, or paint half my body. Some photos are inspired by various Greek stories and motifs. The classical nude poses are over-dramatized situations of a figure contorted in tight spaces. These are in proximity to contemporary objects; they express my ideas of obedience, labor, vulnerability, and commercialism. By integrating a nude figure with clothes as shackles or weights, the images ask the viewer to question their relationship to commonly purchased objects.