"This Midas Earth" is a range of early pieces which often use found or discarded materials, transforming them into new contexts and forms. The title is sourced from a quote by Saul Bellow: "This midas earth whose buried corpses bring forth golden flowers."
"Imagist Poem", 48" x 76", modified found record covers, custom walnut shelves, 2010
Ezra Pound's entire short form poem, "In The Station of the Metro," is spelled out using modified record covers. Pound himself described this poem as an "equation" with "splashes of color."
"Pencil of Nature (Taipei)" modified lens, framed plexiglas - American Cultural Center, Taipei, 2009
A camera obscura, designed to fit in a frame, is constructed on a high floor in the American Cultural Center. Viewers can watched a live view of the outside scene in downtown Taipei.
"Cut Vinyl Remix", modified vinyl record, player - Peabody Essex Museum, 2009
A vinyl record of Handel's Messiah is laser cut into squares and reassembled, human voices transform into mechanical sounds with new sonic patterns.
"Path to Paradise", laser cut C-print - Jewett Art Gallery, Wellesley College, 2012.
Four hand printed c-prints are cut into text from a quote from Dante's Inferno.
"Path to Paradise", laser cut C-prints - Dublin City Gallery/Hugh Lane, 2013
"I Don't Know (Which Side I'm On), cassette tape strip, variable dimension, 2013
This text piece, which exists as a continuous line on both side of a single wall, speaks to physical and psychological ambivalence. In future versions of the series, the cassette tape strips will be in constant motion.
"Chrome Piece", hand cut vintage bumpers, 2012
"E Pluribus Unum" is cut into bumpers from 1956, the very year the national motto was changed to "In God We Trust". These bumpers serve as protection, reflection, and a kind of monument to the loss of the collective spirit of the original phrase.
"Defense Mechanism", beetle, light element, wire, bat, 2008
In this exchange, a beetle repels an advancing bat with a strong light emanating out of its abdomen.
"Death is Just a Rumour Spread By Life", mixed media - Laconia Gallery, 2008
The installation creates an allegory of sorts, paralleling the suspension of time in death, as well as in a photograph.
"Fate Machine", opera set installation for "A Rake's Progress" by Stravinsky - BRIC Brooklyn, 2009