Kelly Speakman: 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.