The crushed series
crushed charcoal and migration documents collage
In this collection the artist uses crushed wood charcoal as an allusion to genealogy, as wood relates to the symbolism of a family 'tree.' The use of newspaper, immigration documents, and fabric pastiches relate to our multi-layered identity, as a construct which is dependent upon one's natural, historical, and social environments. The use of zeppelins hovering over the cityscape are a statement about the concern to live unconstrained lives in an evermore constraining world. The use of broken lexicon is to give the viewer a brief experience of having language difficulties, as immigrants often do when trying to decipher a written piece of text in a new land. As for the human figures, they are related to personal (and learned) nostalgic memories which narrate social, romantic, infantile, and marital situations ingrained in the artist's consciousness.
