Senescence Has Its Purpose (2020)
38" x 36" x 7"
Alginate, Hydrocal
Senescence Has Its Purpose builds on a desire for contact and envelopment. Beginning with an alginate negative of the body, an attempt is made to return to the void, only to be confronted with a change in its state and dimension during the body's absence.
The mold is subsequently cast in a mixture of plaster and concrete. No longer functional as a vessel for the body, it transforms into a memoriam of a previous self. The resulting object combines the body with the receptacle that held it. It becomes not so much a replica of the body as a replica of a moment of union between the body and the containing object.
The possibility is then created of physically holding that moment, removing the void from its transitory state and bringing it into one of (relative) permanence. The body, although it is removed from its shelter, has gained contact in the form of the holding of a previous self.