In Mass, 2019
dirt, porcelain, PVA
65" x 43"
In Mass considers capitalism, consumption and societal values by transforming trash into relics from the height of the American Empire. In December of 2018, my father and I excavated porcelain scraps from the ruins of the pottery he worked at eleven years prior. Pulled from piles of rebar and broken cement, these fragments from this once bustling toilet factory are material reminders of America’s recent industrial past. I have utilized modern manufacturing technologies (3D scanning and 3D printing) to replicate these, otherwise worthless, objects. Through preservation and re-presentation of the originals alongside their copies, I am placing myself within America’s rapidly transforming industrial narrative. By stepping in front of history, In Mass asks viewers to consider these relics long before the passage of time gives them their cultural significance.