Redacted Carcass
Redacted Carcass 72 x 72 x 36 in. Scrap pine, new pine, Grandma Ryan’s pencil, broken ceramic vessel, packing styrofoam, plaster, human hair, coffee grounds, thirty-five holes, backdrop paper, spray paint, wobbly school chair missing seat and back, silicone rubber, marker, thirty-five more holes, graphite, and artist tape.
During a 2012 lecture at the University of Arizona, Noam Chomsky asks whom education is intended for and for what purpose. Within each question, for whom and for what, there are two contesting views. Was and is education for the elite minority or is it for everyone? Is education like pouring water into an empty vessel, or is like laying out a string along which a student explores and progresses in their own way?
The piece is comprised of independent yet interconnected actors. What brings them together can be read formally, yet the impetus of each formal decision builds a particular narrative imbedded in the work. I ask the materials to bare a determined symbolism along with their materiality. Each material has a purpose, but they are applied in ways that are unconventional or ad hoc. Each actor has a job, yet the job is unfulfilled.