WHEN + WHERE

Opening reception: Wed. February 11, 5 - 7pm

Exhibition on view: Feb. 12 - Mar. 7, 2026

Gallery hours: Mon - Thurs, 9am - 6pm; Fri, 9am - 5pm; open 10am - 5pm on Mar. 7

Helen Lindhurst Fine Arts Gallery, Watt Hall

ARTIST STATEMENT

The work I create centers around the concept of labor, particularly as its cultural definition continues to shift. From an anthropological perspective, labor has meant different things to different generations, from the production of one’s own goods to survive (homesteading) to the labor movement centered on workers rights and industrial greed. My work attempts to use the former to capture the latter, especially as many aspects of the labor movement go untouched in American educational systems. 

Using clay, a laborious medium that has eons of history revolving around autonomous production, I use industrial products (a potter’s wheel, modern tools, mined/produced claybodies, mined/produced glaze ingredients, and natural gas/electric kilns) to emulate production through industrialization. Careful craft (of ware and glaze) rehumanizes workers, yet the integration of geochemical materials from sites of labor strife implies exploitation, violence, and political unease that makes one question both the decorum of industry and the morality of organizers. Every work (or set) I create has theoretical functionality, yet works for deeper symbolism alongside suspected use. 

Creating this type of work presents an interactive element to conceptual art that challenges a user’s predisposition and consumption. Functional work examining industry becomes more tactile, more personal, more intimate, and sparks contemplation outside the gallery scene. It is truer to what it represents; the used art object is dynamic, multifaceted, acts consciously, and subconsciously. It is not meant for a gallery; it is meant for people, for education, for memorial, for grassroots organizing.

As worker-capital interaction continues to be hostile, and the propriety of industries remain in flux, I attempt to highlight specific historical instances that have relevance to the evolving 21st century worker.