Artist Statement:

 

I have a pre-occupation with beauty; I spent much time seeking it in the various wild areas near my homes since childhood. One memory is encountering the stinkhorn fungus. In a field of brown decaying leaves I saw a flicker of bright red, irresistibly drawn closer I find the strangest formation of delicate mushroom “flesh” that seemed to dance in front of my eyes. At a young age I recognized its grotesque beauty. The stinkhorn influenced my aesthetic standards including attractions to the color red and jaunty growth patterns.

Modern biotechnology developments fit perfectly into my childhood fascinations and provide me with endless raw material and inspiration. My imagination processes the information on developments such as stem cell research; GMO’s; superhuman prosthetics, “yuck factors” and the well-documented separation attempt of the Iranian conjoined Siamese twins Laleh and Ladan Bijani who would rather risk their lives than remain together. In the studio I reinterpret the information and adopt the role of mad scientist or geneticist given free reign to create my own “specimens.” My sculptures are hybrid characters, psychological mythologies, and manifestations of the fantastic inner workings of our bodies- simultaneously grotesque, absurd and sometimes funny.

My search for beauty and purpose coincided with elements of tragedy, manifesting into unusual forms that play with abstractions of femininity and vitality. Reshaping the body reflects a delight in making allegory combined with the depravity of human error. Grafting elements of dissimilar species onto the human form demonstrates my curiosity about science, medicine and the search for human perfection. I lure the viewer in with luscious colors and materials, to contemplate anxious content in close proximity. The sculptures combine beauty with absurdity, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. Within my work the human body is displaced retaining ranges of recognizable features-but what remains behind is an interest in the dispersal and fertilization of the feminine mystique.