Suspended Animation

About the exhibition

Cartoons and animation in all their technicolor splendor were a big influence on me as a child and continue to inform my work as an artist today. The generally accepted first use of the “falling anvil” trick occurred in a 1942 Warner Brothers cartoon entitled “A Tale of Two Kitties,” in which one of the animated cats unknowingly pulls an anvil off a roof onto himself, burying him deep into the earth. The anvil was likely chosen as the common heavy object in animation simply because it was much easier to draw and reproduce than a piano or a safe, for example. Although not as commonplace as they were in 1942, anvils continue to be synonymous with heft and crushing weight.

An homage to my childhood love for cartoons, Suspended Animation is a frozen moment of time in which anvils are suspended by ropes above targets placed on the floor. The installation lies dormant like a paused tv screen until activated by the viewer in the space where the potential weight of the anvils looms overhead. These forms represent the anxieties and pressures that hang over us as we navigate our lives and try to not get crushed.

My sculptures are primarily created through the process of needle felting. There is a comfort that is embedded in this nostalgic material. Needle felting is done by compressing raw wool with a barbed needle into a form: Every area is stabbed hundreds of times with a single needle until the desired density is formed. This medium allows me to sculpt works within a surreal space that is both disarming and inviting.