Phantoms
I am fascinated by art that makes the viewer aware of the depths of one’s perceptual and sensorial experience. This fascination has been inspired by my enduring interest and exploration of a rare chronic eye condition that I was born with called Nystagmus, which leaves my entire visual experience infinitely shaking. Living with this condition, I have come to realize that my sense of touch has been heightened and it is the sense that I have come to rely on most to know the world around me.
In my current experience with a visual disability, which has been accentuated by the isolation that coincides with a global pandemic, I have grown touch-deprived. To adapt to a world without physical touch, I have found refuge in turning my bouts of isolation into monumentalized indexes of this loss. My intentions with this work are to embody my struggles as well as to create phantom sensations or proprioceptive interactions with my audience, who are enduring similar loss in this time of social distancing and individual isolation.
Inspired by American author and family therapist Virginia Satir’s prescription of eight hugs a day for psychological health, I have sculpted eight hug impressions to document and display the loss I am enduring, while also paradoxically giving myself the opportunity to experience the feeling of giving and receiving a hug to maintain my emotional well-being. Each bust is a ceramic vessel that relates to the size and form of the human torso, with its own unique set of exterior and interior idiosyncrasies. Each black form alludes to mourning the loss of touch, while the comforting textures of brightly colored interiors reference the warm, affectionate childhood characters that taught my generation how to hug and care for one another. Each sculpted form is paired with a custom support created from various household items that, in themselves, evoke the sensation of touch—a coping mechanism for comfort in a world with limited human interaction.
