Mea Culpa
2009

Obsession, Perpetual, and Out draw upon Medieval devotional forms, and literary allusion. They were developed in tandem as a response to learning more about the commodity petroleum. I found the relationship between petroleum and soap confounding–one necessary for the production of the other, which once produced is used to erase evidence of a portion of itself. That interconnection seemed like an apt metaphor of my own participation in the systems that are dependent upon fossil fuels: resigned to using them, while simultaneously compelled to mitigate guilt because of that use.

Obsession:
300+ glycerin soap bars embedded with gas receipts, stacked 16 inches from the ground on a teal glass surface illuminated from beneath.

Perpetual:
Me attempting to washing my hands clean from used motor oil from my car.

Out:
A grid of 12 7x7 inch panels, depicting bars of plain soap sequentially being unwrapped and in various stages of use. As the soap diminishes, a stain emerges and grows in the composition. All have the whisper of text over the whole surface, which are image transfers of gas receipts.