Innocent in a Sense (Echoes in a Sentence) 2023
flameworked key-syringes, slumped and sandblasted float glass, cut mirror, steel, aluminum wire
This piece depicts a padded box of slumped glass containing a notebook made of mirrors cut in the shape of a facial profile. Above it hang four flameworked syringes housing keys whose teeth spell the word “FREE.” These forms collectively respond to the multiple instances in which the artist’s brother asked for a pen to write with and was instead forcibly sedated. With this work the artist questions the normalization of violence and mistreatment within U.S. prisons and mental health facilities.
[Photos by Lyncia Berry]