IIII

2020

In Project IIII, my time-based sculptures tell a story of four adopted chairs re-naturalizing back to nature. It begins with collecting furniture from dumpsters and alleys, specifically of wood because these objects are made by destroying a living thing (a tree) to benefit the life of other living things (human beings). Its ultimate disposal in a landfill signifies its second death and return to nature. My process is composed of four chapters: (I) stripping the furniture to remove the skin of its previous life to reveal the raw material makes it vulnerable again; (II) dissecting into parts, submerging in lake water with jasmine flowers for a ceremonial moonbath (under the full moon), and placing in contact with the earth’s surface, grounds the healing process and stimulates its energy for a new identity; (III) reconfiguring and reinforcing a new form with human hair including mine; and (IIII) covering in mud, worm casting—a compost I make myself with an appreciation that the death of one organism can become the object fertilizer for another, and perennial bulbs to sleep over the winter and bloom in spring. Because perennial flowers bloom according to the climate and spring comes earlier each year, the sculpture signals how life on earth is becoming as fragile and disposable as the furniture.