“MONSTER” (3D Installation, Performance, 2015)

-A series of performances and happenings-

 

Monster is a physical representation of a traumatic childhood memory. Upon moving the piece around my studio with no intentions of ever showing it, I decided that physically lugging the cot around was just like carrying the heavy memory with me throughout the years. I decided to take the sculpture with me everywhere I went in public during the Hebden Bridge Arts Festival in 2015.

The cot had to be disassembled and reassembled to get into pubs and restaurants. It had to be carried up and down stairs and loaded in and out of the car. A very symbolic gesture of what happens in our lives when we continue to hang on to things which no longer serve us. In the end, I decided to burn it on American Independence Day. I collected the remnants of the burnt cot and reassembled a much smaller version of the work.

Monster is now an icon the size of a standard lunch box. We can never completely forget these things. We do have to carry them around with us, but sometimes we can learn to make them smaller and more manageable.