Partial Body of a Saint, 2021
60in. x 21in. x 21in.
lindenwood from salvaged church architectural elements, deadstock jewelry chain from closeout wholesaler, aluminum stock from machine shop liquidation auction, machine screws, wood screws, painted pipe found on Linden Street, 420 myo limestone from Silurian-era extinction event collected from decommissioned cement mine that supplied material for the base of the Statue of Liberty, portland cement stolen from furloughed municipal construction site during COVID quarantine period, hydraulic cement left over from landlord’s development project, mannequin left on Linden Street by Miss Cherry Delight (used as found mold), the content of boxes and furniture left on Linden Street in front of the artist’s studio on the week after the artist’s neighbor Maria passed away, pull tabs from cat food cans found over the period of a year on Linden Street in front of the artist’s studio likely left behind by Maria feeding neighborhood strays
(see expanded material list and description at bottom of page)
Partial Body of a Saint, 2021
60in. x 21in. x 21in.
i. arms rendered in lindenwood from salvaged church architectural elements (Ridgewood, Queens, NY), carved using anonymized CT scan data from NIH online cancer imaging archive (imaging.cancer.gov)
ii. pull tabs from cat food cans found over the period of a year on Linden Street in front of the artist’s studio, likely left behind by Maria feeding neighborhood cats (Ridgewood, Queens, NY)
iii. broken necklace chain (mended) found on sidewalk in front of studio (Ridgewood, Queens, NY)
iv. aluminum stock purchased in bulk at auction from machine shop closing inventory liquidation (Paterson, NJ)
v. “4-40 .5-inch 18-8 Stainless Steel Socket Head Cap Screws” purchased from Grainger (Maspeth, Queens, NY)
vi. “1/2-13 2-inch 18-8 Stainless Steel Socket Head Cap Screws” purchased from Grainger (Maspeth, Queens, NY)
vii. “1/2-inch 18-8 Stainless Steel Flat Washers” purchased from Grainger (Maspeth, Queens, NY)
viii. “#9 x 3-1/8 in. Star Drive Bugle Head R4 Multi-Purpose Wood Screws” purchased from Home Depot (Maspeth, Queens, NY)
ix. yellow painted steel pipe (origin forgotten)
x. 420-million-year-old carbonate sedimentary rock from Silurian dolomite limestone, collected from decommissioned cement mine that supplied material for the base of the Statue of Liberty (Rosendale, NY)
xi. portland cement stolen from furloughed municipal construction site during COVID quarantine period (Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY)
xii. hydraulic cement donated by landlord, left over after building development project (Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY)
xiii. mannequin left on Linden Street by Miss Cherry Delight used as found mold (Ridgewood, Queens, NY)
xiv. the content of boxes and furniture left on Linden Street in front of the artist’s studio on the week after the artist’s neighbor Maria passed away (Ridgewood, Queens, NY).
note: Almost all the physical material in this work came from the block my studio was on, and the specific community who lived there. During the early part of the pandemic a woman who lived next door to my studio, Maria, died. She was 95, originally from Romania, and had lived in the neighborhood since moving to the United States with her family in the 50’s. We talked on her stoop most days I came to studio. After she died, I found some furniture and a box of belonging her family had left on the street after they cleared out her apartment. I cast those things into cement using a pair of hollow mannequin legs a neighbor had left out as a found mold. Once cast, I polished what I could into a sort of DIY terrazzo. The piece was exhibited as a memorial to her in an open studio event for the neighborhood.