BELONGING, BELONGINGS



BELONGING, BELONGINGS
40 x 40 x 40”
metal, acrylic, cherry, lightbulb, chain, recipe box, wooden horse, clown doll, bell, oil lamp, Hummel figurine, teacup, harmonica



This work was created as a central fixture in a larger installation intended to investigate notions of gender performance within family structures via the traditional dining room setting. It is suspended from the ceiling and looms at eye level; it is an oppressor in the context of the installation in the same way these familial and societal structures are oppressors of otherness. Finished with a bronzed patina, a welded grid frame stabilizes two nestled core pieces that are plasma cut with a pattern abstracted from a piece of lace crocheted by my great-grandmother, both subverting the implied masculinity of metal as well as centralizing the piece around the concepts of gender and labor. The grid frame also serves to partition the separate elements that rest on panes of acrylic, creating a box - cage-like - for each individual object. The objects themselves are heirlooms; some are items given to me by my grandmother, others belong to her, but all are items that have been given to or crafted by a woman in my family, passed down through multiple generations. Objects are often gendered, usually very overtly in the case of heirlooms. This piece aims to illuminate this by situating these objects together, exploring how connotations of stereotypical femininity and masculinity are enforced/subverted within the context of the structured display.