Within my work, I explore issues engaging space, time, objects, and their representations. I am interested in two main ideas: the camera’s frontal relationship to material space and expanding perceptions of volume, often in reference to the body.
As a first generation Romanian-American raised in the Pentecostal church, I recall my religious upbringing to evoke themes of queer alienation and body dysmorphia. The constant dissatisfaction with the here and now has lead me to pursue a new queer constructivism, creating new visions of volume and form. I reinforce the idea of identity as construct through the assembly of readily-available materials (often colored paper and metal wire) with the physical body, embracing the materiality of the handmade. The modernist-inspired compositions are recorded with a camera and the resulting photographic object, the print itself, demonstrates that sculpture can be crafted in two-dimensions.
Although queerness is an ideal that cannot be reached, we can contribute to its vivid light and hope to push its boundaries. My work offers a playful visualization of my experience as a queer person, creating new lifeforms that are both physical and imaginary, and are designed to question our human interpretation of the world in its many dimensions.