This series of work, entitled Dystopia, engages in a dialogue of concerns about my role in over-constructing assembled environments made of paper, resulting in their conceptual deconstruction. These installations represent the cultural propensity toward customizing through artificial means, personal and public spaces to the point of their demise. The work is presented in three formats: (a) digital images taken of constructed environments (b) small scale installations observed through view-finders (c) a full-scale installation within the gallery’s front window.
Through this body of work, I have followed the proposition that asks; at what point does the best intended, rationalized or seemingly logical imposition of personalization and design onto a natural space lead to an element of subversion within it, whereby the authentic materials are obsolete. They are presented to the viewer as a spectacle, a phenomenon and as something that although it may create a desire or an allure, also presents the viewer with a sense of menace or danger. Although the work presents a utopian appearance, it also functions as an ironic comment on an extortionate cultural desire to personalize what is ours. The title of the series, Dystopia, points to this utopian fall into its opposition.