STATEMENT:

The function of an object or process, whether tangible or conceptual, serves as a starting point for my work. Function gives purpose to form. My work questions an object's identity by defeating its purpose. Many contemporary works subvert function, but do so totally. I argue that function is not binary, but just as complex as the identity it represents. When teased apart, function can be seen to have many layers, most rich with contradiction. What are we to make of a device that undercuts its own purpose? It could be termed a failure by a certain standard. Yet other systems draw their value from intentional imperfection. A mass-manufactured product is cold to some, performing its task too perfectly, too impersonally. A broken-down, well-worn device has a deeper character for the very reason it can no longer complete its task effectively.

Here a connection to human behavior can be made. My work locates the desire that a form's function represents, and calls attention to the way this object attempts to meet that need. In surrounding ourselves with objects intended to improve our lives, we forget to ask what we really want to change. Our technology addresses darker, more fundamental urges then we would care to admit. In causing the function of my works to oppose itself, I remind the audience that their own identities are also fundamentally contradictory and complex.