Trash, scrap metal, and organic debris all contain their own dense and particular histories. I believe that as humans we are shaped by everything that has come before us, and to understand where we are, we must know where we come from. In my work I re-imagine, re-interpret, and represent vestiges of the past helping to connect the viewer to their own personal history through landscape. Industrial refuse is a direct documentation of the habits and forms of behavior of those who produced it.
Car parts, auto glass, antique farming machinery, bones, grain, hair, dead birds, mud and bricks are mediums I use to translate the material language of our surroundings. My works are an exploration of and response to the environments that I immerse myself in. I visually narrate the cyclical processes between nature and industry and how that impacts creation and destruction; our personal transformation and adaptation within the changing currents of our environment. It is during the act of scavenging for materials in junk yards, ravines, and swamps that I develop the concepts for the work I am about to create.
I often leave the initial stages of my work open and uncertain while intuitively working out a resolution that will decide the final outcome based on the suggestive qualities of the medium and materials at hand. By contrasting or complementing forms combined with different materials, each component is loaded, contextually and physically possesses a presence. I add to this through relevance and reference to the space in which it is created. These sculptures rely on their counterpart whether it is formally or conceptually to finalize the statement intended to make.
My most recent body of work brings together disparate ideas that fuse them into a new understanding. Each sculpture presented is site specific and temporary; created from objects found in the nearby areas that represent a dialogue reflecting on the land’s history. The forms and structures are evocative of farming machinery, military vehicles and construction equipment. These machines are designed to harvest and irrigate land, to harm and destroy, and to build. As sculptures, however, these churning vehicles of production are halted in a state of motionless decay and articulate a greater meaning through metaphor that exhumes conversations between the viewer and the landscape.
Coming from the great lakes ‘rust belt’ region of the United States and my family roots set in Israel, I have seen the decline industrial and cultural activities due to economic downfalls and devastation caused by war. The boarding up and demolition of hundreds of homes, warehouses, and factories leaves a vacant lot; the torn landscapes and bullet hole riddled buildings leaves a space for an artist like myself to contemplate. Growing up in these conditions in Rochester and Buffalo, NY as well as near a Kibbutz in Northern Israel has drawn an emotive response that makes me feel truly connected to the progression of a ravaged city and land that is constantly trying to rejuvenate itself after years of struggle. The places and situations that I have lived in, have added a defining element in my creative practice and presence.