Identity Entity

Identity Entity wood, metal 2023

Model: Joel´s son Ezra

This effect was intended to help the viewer ask themselves some of the following questions: how is this put together? What’s on the inside? Can I get closer to see deeper inside? Am I in danger? Do I feel threatened? Why does this feel foreign to me? What’s on the other side?

Often times similar questions are used when dealing with ideas surrounding identity.

Detail of Identity Entity

This 2.5 meter, free standing sculpture consists of thousands of hand carved forms assembled around a hollow form.

The exterior is made exclusively with spalted sugar maple. This woods’ intricate, black-lined design naturally occurring from a fungus in the wood, adds additional visual elements to the piece.

The piece is designed to occupy just slightly more space than a human body, standing a bit taller than an average person. This scale is meant to impress upon the viewer that their proximity and relationship to the work mirrors — or slightly exceeds — their relationship to another human being.

With its prickly, possibly dangerous appearance, the piece was intended to elicit curiosity for its construction, such that people are drawn closer and repelled simultaneously.

Detail of Identity Entity