2025
Wood, Leather, Neodymium, Chalk
About the piece:
This work critically examines the espantoon, an ornate wooden baton that originated from and is still closely associated with the Baltimore Police Department.
The striking end of the stick features an ornate design known as a burl head. However, due to the Baltimore dialect, this term has evolved into “barrel head.” When turning the wood, I made sure to emphasize the barrel shape of the head.
I created the chalk logo by reinterpreting the Fraternal Order of Police logo; instead of a badge, I illustrated a target. At the center of the target is a magnet ring, which repels the magnet at the end of the baton.
Images © Nicholas Bruno
2024
Installation includes: Hand-stamped copper panels, wood elements, walkie-talkie radios, FM transmitter, mp3 player, sampled audio, hand-made booklets, ribbon.
Photos courtesy of Claire S. Burke for SOMArts.
2024
Live Performance, 20 minutes
About the piece:
Inspired by Klein's parameters, I reclaim agency of the female body by applying the paint to my own body. I was the artist and the model. My aim was to eschew traditional poses and resist the notion of entertainment by confronting the audience with a straddling position. The straddling gesture, made possible by utilizing a low wall in the space to straddle, transformed my body markings into a three-dimensional object. This object exists in a specific time and space and functions as a boundary within the exhibition space. The act of straddling, specifically for femme bodies, carries connotations of confidence, assertion, and sexual suggestion. Broadening the interpretation, "straddling the ledge" evokes a phrase commonly used to describe someone navigating both sides of a topic or issue, hinting at binary elements within the gendered aspects of this position or in the metaphorical nuances of a given subject.
The performance lasted for twenty minutes. This period of time refers to the twenty minutes Klein had a string quartet play the same note in his performance. Here, I used the twenty minutes to give the subject (model/artist/performer) power, power in holding space without having to perform anything more than what is presented, power to be in control of one's own body. The two cocktails displayed on a plinth to the left of my performance referenced Klein's blue cocktails served to audience members at the original performance in 1960. I consumed the blue mocktail as a symbol of self-satisfaction or self-indulgence to mark the performance's end.
In this performance, I incorporated recorded excerpts of Yves Klein's voice directing his models. This audio accompaniment served as a set of instructions that subtly underscored themes of control. I also included recorded interviews of Klein's wife, Rotraut, and one of his "favorite" models, Elena Palumbo-Mosca. They both spoke highly of Klein, raising more questions about the characteristics of figures in power. The notion suggests that such charismatic figures can seduce people to mask their manipulation. While researching Klein and his success, especially with pieces like Le Vide (1958), in which he presented nothing more than an empty room, I came across a paper by Matthew Trueman, who presented a psychological analysis of Yves Klein's marketing strategies. Trueman examines different tactics, such as the latitude of acceptance. This approach gauges how far one's idea/commodity is outside another person's beliefs; one has to find the enthymeme, an implication of truth, to appeal to the audience. To build a latitude of acceptance with his radical ideas, especially for the art world at that time, Klein published two books featuring reproductions of paintings that never existed. This published book of paintings gave the impression to the art world that Klein had reached a level of artistic mastery, and this helped him gain notoriety - by suggesting that he must be onto something genius with his new minimalistic monochromes. This concept of the latitude of acceptance can be applied to major institutions. The enthymeme is that Klein is a master painter, and any art he makes must be good; if you're in a church, nothing unholy can happen, or if you're with a cop, you must be safe. In this performance, my emphasis is specific to women's bodies, but my examination suggests how figures like Klein have left a lasting and influential imprint on societal perceptions.
2022
Steel, Steel Wool, My Sweat
In Steel Wool Bed (2022), I welded a steel bed frame from an eighth inch round bar and laid on it for eight hours. My sweat left traces that rusted the steel surface. In exchange, my body was left bruised, elucidating that even at rest, the body is laboring.
2023
Video Performance, 5 minutes, 49 seconds.
