TULIPS (2022) is a series of experimental works that explore applications of technical beading methods and act as color studies which consider the ways that shiny, reflective, and iridescent, and transparent surfaces variously interact with color. Hinging on the interplay between frame and image, these pieces also look at the relationship between the decorative, function, and symbology.
On the theme of TULIPS:
1. In the summer of 2021, I bought a bouquet of tulip buds that never opened. I watched the flowers fail to open and go limp as the world opened back up after a year of pandemic closures and lockdowns.
2. At the time, I was working on a project that examined the ways that notions of closeness, relationship, and romance had been altered by the imperatives of isolation and social distance over the previous year. I had been estranged from most of my close friends for over a year. I had also been single for a long time.
3. In 1637 the Dutch Tulip market collapsed, bursting what became one of the most memorable economic bubbles. In 2013, the former president of the Dutch Central Bank referenced Tulip Mania while critiquing bitcoin hype, noting "At least then you got a tulip, now you get nothing.”
4. In spring 2022, I bought a bouquet of tulips that opened and were beautiful. The post-pandemic era was in full swing, though public health risks were still grave. Cryptocurrency bubbles continued to inflate, NFTs were an oft-discussed topic in the art world. I was still single. But the tulips opened, and they were beautiful.
On the theme of TULIPS:
1. In the summer of 2021, I bought a bouquet of tulip buds that never opened. I watched the flowers fail to open and go limp as the world opened back up after a year of pandemic closures and lockdowns.
2. At the time, I was working on a project that examined the ways that notions of closeness, relationship, and romance had been altered by the imperatives of isolation and social distance over the previous year. I had been estranged from most of my close friends for over a year. I had also been single for a long time.
3. In 1637 the Dutch Tulip market collapsed, bursting what became one of the most memorable economic bubbles. In 2013, the former president of the Dutch Central Bank referenced Tulip Mania while critiquing bitcoin hype, noting "At least then you got a tulip, now you get nothing.”
4. In spring 2022, I bought a bouquet of tulips that opened and were beautiful. The post-pandemic era was in full swing, though public health risks were still grave. Cryptocurrency bubbles continued to inflate, NFTs were an oft-discussed topic in the art world. I was still single. But the tulips opened, and they were beautiful.