The Sidney Project

2024 Fotofocus Biennal backstories

Artist Statement

For the last six years, I have replaced my studio practice with construction. I realize now that had been lying to myself that the 2878 Sidney project was my art. In fact, as a sculptor, I just used this as an excuse to apply all my abilities to something that will be financially and functionally sustainable.  My new identity as contractor rather than artist, took up every hour outside of my teaching and administrative work and ultimately wrote off any studio-based exploration that fosters creative liberties. As the project went on, I found myself working three and four jobs to afford it and to spend countless hours researching, learning, lifting and continually making the mistake of thinking I had larger muscles and tougher skin than I do. I have bled, cried, worked until dehydration required me to sit down, inhaled enough plaster dust that it lingers in my dreams-I can smell it from outside of a building. I have a hard time looking at past photos. Along the way, I questioned everything, wondering if there was a better way, but all of this was only because I questioned myself. I was optimistic enough to know I could do it, and I did, when I finally decided to accepted help, I noticed the process leaned in towards art reflecting life.

With some space and time, I now realize this part of my life is truly about unknowing, learning and change. While the renovations may have tapped into some creativity and better organization of space, what you are seeing today is the art. The result, the process, the holes and gaps in documentation and knowledge, the stories that are both truths and lies, the search for connection with neighbors and community, to better understand our similarities and differences.  Its everything AND nothing. With everything presented in the exhibition, there is so much left to be said. I will not explain it all, I cannot.  I am simply presenting some artifacts, recognizing and not attempt to make this more than it is. The making of art is mundane, frustrating, far from glamorous. In reality, with this project, it is my own pursuit to find out something more about myself and surprise myself along the way.

Living as art is about the research, the learning and the application of what I’ve learned all while imagining what life could be. It is a series of moments, whether captured in storytelling, writing, newsprint, photos, that all require imagination. I realize the impossibility of the viewer to receive all information through this work that lead up to this exhibition. I can only hope here to encourage the eventuality of the project’s ongoing evolution in tandem with the passing of time.