Derelict 2007

Description

Three sculptures made from matchsticks in the shapes of chandeliers are placed within the space. To the left, the first is hanging from a single wire, almost touching the floor. The second appears to have been crushed against the right side of the wall. The third is hung from the ceiling at the far end of the room. Shadows under each chandelier are made of black vinyl adhesive in the shape of the artist’s silhouette in different poses.

Artist Statement

The crux of the work is that it comes from the idea of using materials that are flammable, literally. And everybody’s familiar with that…. People are like, “ok this is a matchstick, and it’s a potent, flammable object. I want to use it in a destructive way.” A lot of these works stem from my own personal experiences in Mumbai and are a response to what is happening all over the world in terms of war. In the city of Pittsburgh, and in my neighborhood here where I’m living, I have seen that a lot of homes are abandoned. It’s almost like somebody just left and wasn’t allowed to take their things. It kind of builds your own fantasy, and stories and myths about certain things and the objects from these homes. A chandelier has a connotation of wealth. In earlier days we may have thought that only rich people could afford chandeliers because they are made with crystals and semi-precious stones and things of that sort. In this piece there’s one chandelier crushed into the wall, so that it’s almost breaking apart. One is hanging very pretty and one is just on the floor. The silhouettes now read as people who were possessing these objects…they become the shadow of the object.