All That Glitters: 19th and Mather
All That Glitters: Mozart and Cambridge
Inspired by my family’s immigration to Chicago from Ireland and Poland in the late 19th Century, their labor, culture and community in the Back of the Yards meatpacking district, their settlement in one of the nation’s first suburbs, and the suburban trajectory of my family since, this series of work interrogates the personal, cultural, and economic consequences of suburban development and sprawl. By building and animating 3D models of domestic architecture specific to my family, I am able to reflect upon how American ideals that evolved from the 19th Century European emigrant experience, coupled with a century of negligent and discriminatory suburban planning and policies, set the afflicted path for a family with xenophobic tendencies and unrealistic expectations of grandeur.
This series is in production. Below are examples of 3D models and animations of other dwellings that members of my family have lived in. These models will eventually be composited with each other and other media to build connections between past and present.