ARTIST STATEMENT
I’ve always been interested in the contradictions of being human. That we can feel both big and small, be crushed by doubt or filled with self-confidence, act with brutal selfishness or overflowing compassion, be bursting with life and then, in the end, be very much dead.
We spend a lot of energy trying to prove to ourselves and others that we are one OR the other, in denial, fighting against the reality that both sides of these opposites exist in every one of us. One of the things I’m trying to do as an artist is to explore, accept and even celebrate our inescapable duality. It is the essence of being human and humane, and what we have in common.
I was very lucky to chance upon the idea of making miniature worlds in boxes. The combination of box + miniature seems to uniquely hold these sorts of contradictions in an illuminating and accessible way.
“From tiny experiences we build cathedrals.” – Orhan Pamuk, Nobel Prize in Literature
Looking at the small people in Glass Cathedrals going about their brilliant, absurd lives, we feel compassion – firstly for them, then for ourselves, and finally, for others (poor us! lucky us!). In this state of grace, we may feel safe enough to make new connections, let go of old certainties and accept our contradictions.
And when perspectives begin to shift, anything is possible.