Nevada is home to my childhood, to nuclear waste dumping sites, and to metropolises promising paradise. The paradise is one of man-made fabrication imposing on an unforgiving, wild landscape. At night, the tourists flock to the buzzing neon lights in hopes of a temporary escape from their lives. Should they stay so long as to see the sun come up they will glimpse beyond the illusions; facades made of cheap materials, the littered streets, the smeared cake-makeup faces of the people who devote their bodies to the spectacle. The tired revelry reveals reality around its edges, as the sun’s rays traverse mountains, lakes, canyons, and flat, sandy expanses.
We create multiple levels of reality, with every building that is built, every story that is told, and every experience that is had by more than one individual. The art gallery is a perfect example of humanity’s ability to fabricate a new reality. In our manipulation of outside stimuli, we are in fact showing an alternate perspective, and it can be difficult to see beyond these fabrications to a singular truth. I find humor in this denial of truth, and try to illustrate it in my sculptures. Something as simple as a pink flamingo adorning someone’s lawn in a dry desert climate devoid of marsh not only speaks to the person’s psychological need to connect with a landscape that is not their present but a suspension of disbelief in thinking that such creatures would want to live on this person’s lawn. These plastic pink birds are kitsch, and it is precisely this reason that I like to think of them as an unofficial mascot of Las Vegas, a thriving metropolis that was built in an area that did not even have a natural water source before the Hover Dams creation.
We have poisoned our landscape with our fake environments and social constructs, in this there is a toxicity that is ever-present. I illustrate this relationship in my sculptures.
Now is the time for artists to show the inherent fakeness of the system, no matter their media. In showing the fake, we can begin to see the underlying truth. We realize that there is more beneath the surface, of these fabricated realities, and carefully constructed social expectations, and thus we can finally get to an authentic truth, that everything and everyone is connected. There is beauty in this that should never be, but often is, taken for granted. I use my materials, subject matter, and concepts to show what is fake and what is real; the fakeness in our social constructs, the fakeness of the infrastructure that we inhabit, as well as the instability, and unsustainability of our industry. In doing this I find not only humor but also hope. A practice I will continue. I strive to distinguish myself from the media’s rhetoric, by saying that what I seek, is to illustrate a truth in showing what is fake, as I always place great importance on finding authenticity. Even as I write this there are new narratives, and commentaries creating a false reality as we speak, ones that need to be looked into. In my artwork, I hope that I am able to inspire others to also begin to look for the truth in this fabricated reality we all play a part in.