Othello
A generic Shutterstock image of an empty room—pristine, anonymous, a placeholder for possibility—is translated from digital purity into physical reality. Enlarged to life size and hand-printed in sections onto metallic insulation foam using black housepaint, the image undergoes a transformation. What begins as a clean, controlled photograph becomes something darker through the messy, unpredictable process of printmaking. The hand-printing leaves streaks, inconsistencies, the evidence of labor and loss of control. Purity gives way to darkness.
Dozens of 4x8 foot foam panels are installed in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, interrupting the clean, empty gallery space. The nondescript room from the photograph infiltrates the actual room, and both shift. What was bright becomes shadowed; what was neutral takes on weight. The work explores how spaces transform—how a room that begins as blank and innocent can darken through what happens within it, through what is brought into it, through memory's ability to rewrite a place entirely.
Within the Othello installation, liquid tar is encapsulated in clear plastic—a dangerous, toxic substance suspended and contained. Sealed within its transparent casing, the tar transforms. What should repel instead captivates: it gleams like polished stone, catches light like a gem, shifting with an unexpected beauty. The plastic holds the toxicity at bay, allowing it to be seen differently, turned in the light until it reveals something precious.
Found object (shutterstock image), 4'x8' sheets of metallic insulation foam, black housepaint, liquid tar incapsulated in plastic, screen prints on satin.