Keloids, 2023
Cannibalized tchotchke figurines, Porcelain, glaze. Photos taken by Christopher Wormald and Elon Schoenholz.
The Keloid series uses cannibalize racialized tchotchke figurines through adornment and covers them in porcelain slip. The rose embellishment on the sculptures become decoration and tumor. Referencing a keloid or raised scar after an injury has healed, the roses obscure the figurines and create new images. The porcelain slip cracks on the surface as if it were flaking skin, revealing moments of original glaze beneath it. The sculpture's glaze is various hues of blue and green, obscuring the traditional blue/white and celadon glazes synonymous with Asian ceramics. Keloid I, II, and III are one of the many components within Of eaters and the eaten and sit on a sea of broken porcelain and granulated sugar grout. Sugar and porcelain, both colonial commodities, camouflage into one another, reflecting Whiteness's ability to disguise symbols of power and capital hidden in plain sight.
An ornate object like porcelain can be abstracted to represent a racialized and gendered aesthetic, asking how is one's personhood contingent on object hood, or prescribed to us via fetishziation? How can a person morph into an object?
The cannibalized tchotchke sculptures offer adornment as a method of healing. Grotesque beauty becomes a keloid, reminding us of the beauty that can grow from injury.