This here is a throwback to one of the first works of mine that actually encapsulated the aesthetic and conceptual strength that I work to produce. I had been delving into Jungian ideas about our individual and collective psyche. I myself, at the time, fell prey to my own self-destructive habits and sought to look at destruction from the inside-out. How do our individual ways lead to collective strife?
Little did I know, this piece was to take on a life of its own. Left in a storage room on the fine art floor, two frames and one drawing from this series were stolen. I shrugged it off, as it lends itself to its name, then brought it with me to Rescue or Destroy.
Rescue or Destroy is and interactive art event where the audience is invited to either buy a work or watch it be destroyed in front of them with an axe. The masochist in me was drawn to the idea of shredding apart my own work as an act of aggressive self-defeatism.
Every single work from the Destruction series was bought…every work but one. When Allen ripped it into shreds and it fell atop a mound of destroyed work, I ran to collect the pieces, collaged them back together and created The Survivor.