Artist Statement
My work engages with the exoticism of the artist’s atelier by the fauvists in the turn of the 20th century, classic mythological and iconographic Christian painting, and the aesthetics of super cute (kawaii) Sanrio characters like Hello Kitty. With painting, sculpture, installation and performance, I mythologize my lifetime of image consumption and my daily studio practice. Indulgent and bold, my work ultimately represents my physical, psychological and spiritual body unapologetically occupying space. Superficially, my work is colorful, fun, sparkly and joyous - but upon a deeper read, themes of existential despair, loneliness, and lack of autonomy appear.
This overarching body of work is titled The Fellowship of Aesthetic Transcendence (F.A.T.) and is based loosely on The Self-Realization Fellowship, the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda and their cultural significance in our body positive technological era. I explore how this adopted meditation practice has been formed by it’s associations with Hollywood and ultimately defined by the capitalist market for yogi-centric spiritual ephemera.
The F.A.T. mythology operates in a realm of dialectical opposites. It oscillates between visual joy and existential questioning. It uses loving attention as well as an eye of criticality to explore ideas of hierarchical aesthetics and “tacky” taste.
Frankly, it is undeniable that fatness has been socially moralized and labeled as evil or bad. Contemporary spaces actively exclude fatness. I’d argue that within the minimal there is a fear and moral judgement of the maximal. Is the fear of being “tacky” intrinsically connected to the fear of being fat? Or more broadly connected to the fear of being othered (as Sabrina Strings expands upon in her book Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia)? Tacky things take up space. Fat things take up space. Fat is extra, it is lugubrious, it can be unpredictable. There is not one fat body - the multitude of humanity comes in all different forms of fat.
In thinking about fat-phobia and its relation to minimalism and modern decor esthetics, I define “aesthetic transcendence” as beauty moving beyond the intrinsic hatred of fat bodies. Regardless of the subject, my work is about how the fat body relates to space. I’m interested in “fat-ifying” the familiar - in manipulating the commonplace until it is welcoming to all forms of the body. I take the ordinary and transform it into the physically and mentally inclusive. Superficially I use humor as a hook and an entry point into the work. The fractured and manipulated space encourages the viewer to question the distinction between reality and the transcendental. It leaves a moment for physical and psychic expansion. Allowing the viewer to enjoy feeling “fat” as they inhabit and mentally spread out through the painting’s reality.
Right now I am addressing fantasy - specifically my quarantine fantasies and daydreams that occur from staring at the same thing over and over again. I’m interested in wallpaper because it is an access point for fantasy in our day to day mundane lives. Typically wallpaper is considered kitsch or tacky, and has been shunned by the modern minimal aesthetic (just like fat bodies.) There is joy in kitsch, as there is joy in fat. Joy can be limitless, as fat space can be limitless. The “Opulent Infinity” or “Fat Space” uses layers of wallpaper patterns to mimic layers of identity, fat and emotions. It is a visual manifestation of the energy that radiates from my body when I feel comfortable and loved in my space.