I am interested in the appreciation of everyday wisdom and decency, the heroism of goodness.
In the sixteenth century, one of the Catholic responses to the Reformation was to exhume bodies from ancient Roman catacombs and authenticate them as saints. These relics were distributed throughout Europe and often decorated with gold and precious stones. In reality, the bones could have belonged to anyone.
In these works, I have bejeweled replica skulls with glass viruses, creating a tension between the beauty of the piece and what it represents.
“Heroism and sanctity don’t really appeal to me… what interests me is being a man.” – Albert Camus, The Plague