Trouble at Home, 2017

Trouble at Home, installed at Stroboskop Gallery, Warsaw, 2017. There are three textile sculptures and two collages visible.

For this exhibition at Stroboskop (Warsaw, Poland), I drew upon iconic models of male authority that reference a mythologized America: Ronald Reagan, Elvis Presley, and Superman. The distorted forms offer cultural commentary overlaid with the absurd—half-inflated body parts bulge and collapse, and visages stutter in space, manifesting the aspirations and anxieties encoded into these figures. This exhibition was presented for Warsaw Gallery Weekend 2017.

A crumpled textile sculpture of Ronald Reagan slumps along the length of a thick white shelf, with one arm dangling off the side. The work is made with printed, sequined, and floral fabrics, and sewn along the front edge with a bright orange band.

Small Dreams, 2017; polyester, lycra, grosgrain, stuffing; with wood shelf; approx. 30 x 24 x 11 in.

An array of larger-than-life-size fabric Superman fists sits on a thick white plinth on the concrete floor, piled up like a series of cartoon punches. Some of the fists are overstuffed, while others are flat and limp.

Trouble at Home, 2017; polyester, lycra, stuffing; 46.5 x 31 x 6 in.

Provisional Man, 2017; wool, polyester, sewing pins; 24 x 24 in.

Provisional Man, 2017; wool, polyester, sewing pins; 24 x 24 in.

On the bottom half of a square of pink wool, images of Elvis Presley’s mouth are stacked and sewn together in a grid; on the upper left side, a cut-out of a black pompadour is pinned to the fabric with red and white sewing pins.

Golden Boy, 2017; wool, polyester, lycra, sewing pins; 26 x 24 in.

A gold-fringed textile bust of Ronald Reagan is propped against the wall on a six-foot pole. The bust is made with pink metallic fabric on the sides, and it hangs heavily from the pole as though exhausted.

The Former King, 2017; polyester, lycra, cotton, fringe, metal pole; 79.5 x 13 x 9 in.

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