Bodily Jars

In this series, I abstract my body by transmuting it into vascular jar forms; showcasing myself as a vessel who has been altered into an uncanny receptacle. By forming my body into a jar, I reference the form’s historical use as a storage container while also referencing my connection to usage and loss of agency to the point of disconnection from my physical form and inner identity.

With key thematic elements revolving around the uncanny, loss of self, commodification, and consumption; I use my personal experiences to articulate the effect that internal or external forces can have on the body, making it feel not your own or foreign.

Beginning with photography, I collect images of the body before photomontaging them together to illustrate my real body in an unreal form–an amalgamation of flesh and protrusions, illustrating the divergence of my body and mind. After this collection process, the images are then constructed three-dimensionally with clay, bringing them into the same physical space that I occupy. To complete their life cycles, they are glazed to mimic the look of porous skin and then fired to cone 10. The finished jars then rest empty, waiting to be used or acted upon through an outside force.