Looking Back

I’ve been going back through older work lately, especially pieces that didn’t get much attention when I originally made them. Silent Stares is one I keep coming back to. Looking at it now, I see a connection to Stability Tests that I definitely wasn’t thinking about when I made it.

Silent Stares is built around a staircase. The words are physically attached to the steps, broken apart and carried across the structure. You have to move through the staircase visually to put the language back together.

For a long time I thought of the stairs mostly as a way to organize the piece. Looking at it now, I think they were doing more than that. A staircase is a support system. It carries weight and allows movement from one level to another. It is something we trust because it has been built to hold us. In this piece, it also carries the language.

That idea feels surprisingly close to what I’m doing now.

The objects in Stability Tests are different. Pallets, crates, sawhorses, straps, wedges and other things meant to hold, brace, distribute or secure a load. I’ve been interested in what happens when those objects stop being background equipment and become the subject. What are they supporting? How much can they carry? What happens when the support itself becomes noticeable?

I think Silent Stares was approaching some of those questions much earlier, just through a different vehicle.

The staircase isn’t unstable. If anything, its job is to be stable. But that may be the connection. I’m realizing that this work has never really been about things falling over. It’s about the systems we depend on to keep things from falling over.

I didn’t make Silent Stares as a Stability Test. That series didn’t exist yet. But looking at it again, I’m starting to wonder if the idea did.

“Silent Stares” 2025

Ceramic & Cast Glass

16” x 6.5” x 8”