n 2017, I had the idea to create a modular artwork composed of smaller sculptures that could be rearranged to create new pieces. Working with @jennyholzerstudio influenced me to do something a little more direct, thinking about the alphabet as a kit of parts. I’ve been interested in the intersection of Graphic Design and Architecture, and this project was a good opportunity to explore that.
Little did I know that it would take me almost four years to complete the series. This is the first work I completed this year.
Something else was happening during this time. It seemed like words in culture were increasingly losing their power to convey a common meaning. Two different people could read the same thing and draw wildly different conclusions, almost predictably, based on their pre-affiliated tribe.
Perhaps, I could create a series of word-search puzzles that could celebrate misinterpretation, contradiction, and loss of meaning, where everybody could draw their own conclusion and choose something they could be upset about, together. I wanted it to appear beautiful and almost decorative at first, and really force people to dig out the little depressing poems inside.
Unfortunately, I didn’t really think too deeply about what it would take to conceive, design, and produce 26 custom individual sculptures, fabricated hundreds of times to create a variety of language and meaning. Each letter was a meticulous mini-project.