The Structure: A Temporary Adage
The Structure: A Temporary Adage- Installed at Chautauqua Institute in Collaboration with Jo Locke. Outdoor installation using found object. approx. 329 sq. ft, 2024
“The Structure” is a collaborative project involving carving out a place for community engagement in unconventional spaces. It is a project brought on by my desire to expand my work beyond just an object but also the space an object inhabits. It is a place of performance, a gallery space, a place to work, a place to rest but it is not a house.
Zeni, Steven
Zeni, Steven - Installed at Montserrat College of Art in collaboration with Jessica Matos, 120 drawings on paper, 430 tallies presented on the day of the exhibition on found chair (Tallies continue until an undisclosed date), 2024
This project was brought on by a discussion I had with Jessica regarding a friend who had passed away: Steven. The found chair is the seat I was in upon hearing the news. The seat was the chair I sat in when I would draw, paint or just rest in an everyday studio chair. It soon became a symbol of loss for me I refused to sit in this chair or even interact with it. During this conversation, Jessica relayed to me the passing of her grandmother Zeni who passed away around the same time.
The project works as a symbol of loss and the act of taking on another's grief through labor. As part of this collaboration, Jessica would make a tally on my studio chair for each day since Steven passed. Upon installing the chair there were 430 tallies. As part of the collaboration, the tallies will continue until the chair is filled or the artist passes. The accompanying works on paper consist of 120 drawings of the same chair. My portion of the collaboration was to depict an object every day for 120 days for each hour that Jessica's grandmother was in a coma before her passing. This collaboration serves as a response to grief and the transformation of an object; the chair an object associated with rest defined as a seat typically for one, becomes a symbol of loss.
