Touch Project: Cogito

"Touch, by clarifying and adding to the shorthand of the eyes, teaches us that we live i a three-dimensional world. We look at a photograph taken with someone we love at a small one-llama circus in a rural town, and remember the stickiness of that summer day, the feel of the llama insinuating its velvety nose into our shirt pocket, into our hand, under our arm, and around our chest, gently but irrepressibly looking for food....Touc allows us to find our way in the world of darkness or in other circumstances..."  

A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman, Page 94.

Cogito, Particle board, chicken wire, yarn, thread, 2020.

Within the piece various elements of memory are established, the chicken wire, particle board, the knit, and tassels. Each of these items holds a tactile relationship to a memory, when feeling these surfaces a memory is conjured. All of these materials remind me of my childhood, the particle board holds the same hollow luster of a school desk, while the knitted element calls back to hospital visits and the blanket my parents would bring with us. I maintained a garden with a chicken wire fence and trellises and would constantly get snagged on the cut spokes. Lastly, the tassels are imitations of those that bordered curtains in my grandmother’s house, I would constantly run my fingers through the fibers.  

The organization and size of these surfaces in relation to one another reflects the mental clarity of these memories, while the texture of a school desk is a strong memory, compared to the other elements the relationship between the tactile experience and memory recall is not as strong. Where as the tassels, are an immediate signal to memories of my grandmother’s curtains.  

Touch Project: Utility of Surface Series

"At the age of twenty-eight her arthritis was so acute that she had to loosen up her hands before each performance by baking them in gloves of warm wax. In time the pain grew too stubborn, and she gave up preforming for teaching. for long term sufferers, 'Pain is greedy, boorish, meanly debilitating,' as neurologist Russell Martin says in Matters Gray and White. 'It is cruel and calamitous and often constant, and, as its Latin root poena implies, it is the corporeal punishment each of us ultimately suffers for being alive.'" 
A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman,page 106 

Food related objects, group.

Walking related object, pair of shoes.

Drinking related objects, group.

Writing related objects, group.

 As someone with disabilities that limit movement, cause severe joint pain, and affect my ability to do simple tasks, many daily tasks and simple objects are difficult or painful to use and interact with. The colored glass shards are used as an indicator of pain, and occupy spaces on the objects that you naturally go to in order to use them  or are required to touch to use the objects. The implied sensation being that, to use these items you must fully touch a surface that will absolutely cause harm.  

The glass is used not only to convey the physical sensations I experience by using these items, but also to direct the viewer to further examine the forms and operations of these objects. Acting as a deterrent to regular ways of interaction and use, the restriction of surfaces in the series  calls attentions to other modes of using what are considered simple objects by a majority of people.  

Twistys 01, Plastic medication bottle, stained glass, glue, 2020.

Detail of Twistys 01.

Mark Maker 01, Pen, stained glass, glue, 2020.

Eating 01, Metal fork, stained glass, glue, 2020.

Detail of Eating 01.

Eating 02, Metal spoon, stained glass, glue, 2020.

Eating 03, Metal knife, stained glass, glue, 2020.

Drinking 01, Stoneware, Stained glass, glue, 2020.

Detail of Drinking 01.

Meal Prep 01, Aluminum can, stained glass, glue, 2020.

Detail of Meal Prep 01.

Walking 01, Pair of shoes, stained glass, glue, 2020.