SURROGATE, 2022
Conduit, human hair, plaster bandage, resin, exhaust pipe, polymeric sand, reclaimed lumber, moving air, warm light
11’ x 13’ x 11’8”
At the core of the installation, six curved lines emerge from the ground. They trace the form of a body in repose. Human hair hangs from each line, disconnected from the plaster wrapping, suspended in space. Below this structure lies a basin. It is a carved-out topography of an entombed or prenatal figure. The viewer is held in tension with the structure, unable to enter, but invited to imagine inhabiting the intimate interiority nevertheless.
Conduit, human hair, plaster bandage, resin, exhaust pipe, polymeric sand, reclaimed lumber, moving air, warm light
11’ x 13’ x 11’8”
At the core of the installation, six curved lines emerge from the ground. They trace the form of a body in repose. Human hair hangs from each line, disconnected from the plaster wrapping, suspended in space. Below this structure lies a basin. It is a carved-out topography of an entombed or prenatal figure. The viewer is held in tension with the structure, unable to enter, but invited to imagine inhabiting the intimate interiority nevertheless.
The title comes from a meditation on Harry Harlow's 1958 "Wire Mother Experiment," which studied an infant's tactile needs from its mother for basic survival and development. This work intends to probe: in the absence of sensory care from a person, can architecture become a surrogate? When we are abandoned, displaced, or harmed, what remains to reclaim and rebuild?
gallery installation photo courtesy of Wes Magyar