On the Verge Steel plates, enamel paint, copper wire, language  Units 6” x 4” dimensions variable  (installation detail, one of three sections, Bradley Palmer State Park, Topsfield, MA)  1993

Speak To Me  Wooden headboard, nails, language  48” x 57” x 3”  1992

Reflective “I’s”  Steel, wood/glass mirror  18” x 74” x 37” 1992

Act Of Faith  Paper contract, Steel I-beam  144 units 6” x 3½” x 1½” with stand 34” x 10” x 12” 1992

Claim of Parentage  Marble tile, steel hinges, copper wire, granite river-stones, language  72” x 72” x 12” 1995

Claim of Parentage  (detail)

Avoid Avoidance  Ceramic tile, enamel paint, aluminum, poem  46” x 48” x3 ½”  1994

Avoid Avoidance (detail)

Try Not To Cry  Found diary, hardware, polyurethane, granite, acrylic paint, poem  80” x 33” x 8”  1995

Try Not To Cry (poem detail) 

Try Not To Cry (poem detail) 

Home Remedies (For those Homeless Feelings)  wood and metal medicine chest, coated aluminum, poem  24” x 18” x 5” 1997

Subtractive Process  Graphite, acrylic paint, poem on wooden drawer 28” x 30” x 3”  1997

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The Attraction Of Language In Art

 

Language alters our experience by shaping, structuring, and placing limits on emotional and informational content.  It superimposes other rules and demands over our encounter with visual and physical form in space and time.  I explore the influence of language on our thinking in many different ways: by physicalizing it, by repeating and distorting it in word patterns and word-games, and by appealing to its self-soothing and self-orienting functions. I am curious how the presence and treatment of language affects our perceptions and feelings about ambiguity.  I don’t have a lot of answers; in fact, I am still trying to figure out the questions.