Claustrophobia

With this piece, I squished a book into a wooden food masher. I wanted it to look like the words were trying to fight their way out of the jar, which I used the wire for. Sometimes it feels like you cannot get the words out, and your own body becomes constrained -- the world and people around you seem bigger than your own ability to move against the world, whether with words, actions, or physical motion. With this piece, I wanted to capture the suffocating feeling it gives, but also expose the absurdity of the whole situation. At the heart of things, it is so much easier for the book and food mesher to be free of one another, but they force themselves together voluntarily. This piece forces truth to power. It represents hope through humor and irony.