THE WITNESSES
The puppet is a universal storyteller. It holds magic potential for distilling the very essence of life, acting as a conduit for energies that transcend the material world. I am interested in the puppet figure as a node of contemplation about the nature of being and the silent reality of the human form.
As the ever-increasing sophistication of technology usurps many human functions, especially in regard to memory, the question of what remains unalterably human becomes a compelling query. The need to interrogate the presumed synergy between humans and technology becomes more significant as our ability to understand ourselves distinct from technology becomes more complicated.
The puppet body can be a potent symbol of the figurative disembodiment of human beings – a kind of anti-cyborg – a figure that is the unmasking of prosthetic intelligence from the sentient body. The project of “Witnesses” strives to give form to the internal narrative of the human race as it evolves in tandem with the technological world - a reconciliation between the outer and the inner realms, and testimony to that which is eternal and common to us all.
SCULPTURES ARE REPRESENTED BY ART GALLERY H IN TUBAC, AZ
Photos by Paula Pinto-Aguero
BODIES
This series of sculptures were made roughly from 2004-2007. I approached each of these with a deep curiosity of how to bring the inner realm into the exterior. Sculpture for me is a struggle because the form is static, and yet the interior being is always moving. Committing a form to a static pose that somehow contains the suggestion of an internal life is continuously challenging, but also very compelling. It is a process for me of learning to trust in the simplicity of the human form and not try to imbue it with anything, but rather allow the potential of movement to animate the bodies.
Photos by Tomas Arceo