The Wall is Part of Yourself

I use engraved glass, woodworking and optics to explore the mutability of individual identity by making camera obscura sculptures that are enchanting and playful.

In an effort to disrupt common metaphors in English that equate the self with permanence and truth and with interiors, and change and inauthenticity with exteriors, the permanent engraved glass surface of the objects I  make interacts the constantly changing projected image of the environment that the work inhabits with the user. They situate change into the place of authenticity by placing the projected image at the core of the object. I aim for my work to be inviting for users to interact with through touch and play, and these are made on a scale that is easily handheld.

It hurts to go through walls, it makes you sick

but it’s necessary.

The world is one. But walls . . .

And the wall is part of yourself —

Whether you know it or not it’s the same for everyone, everyone except little children. No walls for them.

The clear sky has set itself on a slant against the wall. It’s like a prayer to emptiness.

And the emptiness turns its face to us

and whispers,

“I am not empty, I am open.”

from Thomas Tranströmer’s “Vermeer”