“Meltdown” Series 2020-2024
The “Meltdown” series highlights my continued interest in themes of domesticity, grief, fragility, isolation, mental illness, stoicism, and resilience. I began this series in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. What started as a way to work through my own sadness and loneliness became a desire to hold space for others and normalize negative emotions and breakdowns as facts of life. I want my work to be a catalyst for conversations about vulnerability and empathy as essential tools for living and coping in precarious times.
The series combines dramatically-lit portraits of vintage porcelain figurines with several experiments, including pouring hot wax over them, casting them in wax, burning them as candles, painting miniature china patterns on them, and breaking and partially gluing them back together. The figure’s emotional and mental states manifest through physical collapse, but their destruction may lead to metamorphosis and renewal. The resulting portraits are somber and hopeful, viewing the female body as luminous, in flux, dynamic, and resilient.
The “Meltdown” series highlights my continued interest in themes of domesticity, grief, fragility, isolation, mental illness, stoicism, and resilience. I began this series in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. What started as a way to work through my own sadness and loneliness became a desire to hold space for others and normalize negative emotions and breakdowns as facts of life. I want my work to be a catalyst for conversations about vulnerability and empathy as essential tools for living and coping in precarious times.
The series combines dramatically-lit portraits of vintage porcelain figurines with several experiments, including pouring hot wax over them, casting them in wax, burning them as candles, painting miniature china patterns on them, and breaking and partially gluing them back together. The figure’s emotional and mental states manifest through physical collapse, but their destruction may lead to metamorphosis and renewal. The resulting portraits are somber and hopeful, viewing the female body as luminous, in flux, dynamic, and resilient.
