About my installation sculptures of sifted Kaolin

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The key concerns in my work with Kaolin have to do with notions of the value of physical labor, the accumulation of material as evidence of time, and questions about permanence and the ephemeral. I use this traditional material (clay) in unconventional ways by sifting if in its industrial form of very fine powder. My engagement with this materials is motivated out of a desire to discover ways in which it might visually reveal or challenge assumptions of its own characteristics. I accomplish this by implementing a simple but concentrated and repetitive physical activity of sifting. My processes do not aim at necessary structural ends, rather, my work is capable of creating contextual surprise as a result of prolonged, contemplative interactions. As a function of cumulative kinetic and material trace, the work is insinuated upon the space it occupies. The results of my engagement with these materials often produce a tenuous situation of delicacy and impermanence. I am interested in the tension that develops between the embedded sense of investment and the ephemeral nature of the installation.