Transcending the Material grew out of the idea of knitting as a meditative practice. This is a concept that influences much of my work, and in this piece, I chose to reference this through the knit skeleton seated in lotus position, an iconic gesture utilized in many forms of meditation. The piece was influenced by my desire to transcend my own materiality, to use my art as a means of going beyond the limitations of my own corporeal form, much in the way that transcendental meditation allows a person to go beyond the limits of the body, to transcend the influences of material culture, and become part of something greater than the self.
The skeleton is seated upon a pyramid of cans of Borden’s Eagle Brand Condensed Milk. This is a site specific reference—the art residency where I made this work, The Wassaic Project, is home to the world’s first condensed milk factory. It also serves as a reference to material culture, highlighting the object of the can in the mode of Andy Warhol, using it as a symbol of consumerism and materialism.
Above the skeleton hangs a cloud of photographs of my body parts, with anatomical screen printed overlays. These body parts float as if evaporated from the skeleton below, the spirit having transcended the material body, leaving behind only the bare bones.
The knit skeleton is somewhat of an oxymoron. Both hard and soft, macabre yet comforting and cozy. I wanted to push the boundaries of craft to their absolute limits, blurring distinctions and dismantling hierarchies of art and craft in the process. Knit stitch by stitch, and bone by bone, it is a testament to endurance and detail, and transcending the physical limits of medium and form.
Ultimately, Transcending the Material asks what remains when the body, possessions, and even artistic conventions are stripped away. It is both a meditation on impermanence and an affirmation of making: that through slow, repetitive labor, ordinary materials can become vessels for transformation. By bringing together craft, consumer culture, anatomy, and spirituality, I hope to create a space where the boundaries between body and spirit, art and craft, the mundane and the transcendent begin to dissolve.
Photos by Ben Cuevas