L A B A D E S S A

My practice serves as a physically enacted ritual of praise and contemplation, aspiring towards a devout pursuit of severe beauty. It is an aesthetic of imperfection alluding to the underlying nature of matter and memory: everything is subject to age, wear, and decay; however, it is obstinately suspended in the mythical timelessness of the medium(s)– still, but never silent.

...alternatively...

The work encapsulates a muted story of disenchantment wrought by disillusionment that leads to an agnostic practice in the face of seemingly futility (partly wrought by the decadence and existential angst of the digital epoch): a meditation on the eternal, wherein transcendence lies not in purity but in finding virtue in the impure, if it were to exist, to be found deep within the vulnerable and mortally fabricated self to render a vibrant poem of presence.

...formally...

Having a preference for hyperbole (i.e., operatic) and psychological texture in my work, I am engaged in a mythopoetic pursuit explored in an expanding suite of works within the confines of self-portraiture and observation, where I re-render the flesh of friends and relations (lasting and temporary) by compositing my imagery based on archival material and heterogeneous sources, including (not exhaustively) observed, imaginary, and digital, serving as a conceptually conceived cultural document wrought by the agency of these tumultuous times. All of which continues to feed my creative output, which manifests in an evolving suite of paintings, drawings, and mixed media works that focus on non-verbal and non-narrative communication.

Compositionally, dance and theater are deliberately explored in a multi- and trans-disciplinary manner that is not an end but an open field for perceiving and questioning the contemporary world. Distinctively, through a poetic choreography of singular bodies, the work encourages reflection on the allusions to sites, narratives, and the temporality of existence/memory to emphasize the importance of shared experiences and to critically question the dystopian as well as the utopian potential against hegemonic strategies of social and cultural fragmentation.

The roots and tone of which are supported by many pillars in the myriad expanse of the arts, including the dark avant-gardism of Tatsumi Hijikata's Butoh, Pina Bausch's choreography, the performance, video, and installation artist Vito Acconci, the Romantic poets (Lord Byron and Percy Shelley, in particular), and extending back to the Northern Renaissance (Hans Memling and Jan Van Eyck, notably).