MJA

This Is Not Our House, and I Don't Know If I Can Catch Them
October 20 - November 14, 2023
Noware Gallery, Lancaster, PA

Exhibition statement

A year or so ago, I was gifted two honeysuckle bushes by a good friend. I planted them in the backyard of the house we rent knowing that I would likely only care for them a summer or maybe two.

There is also a shed in that backyard. It’s rusty and full of holes. It has many jagged and sharp edges. The shed is not ideal for Hudson to be around. I’d like to remove it, maybe replace it, but it’s not our choice and we have to save what we have. Maybe the housing market will start to come down . . .

There are also two shovels in that backyard. One shovel is mine, and one belongs to Hudson. We use the shovels to dig holes and fill those holes back in. We don’t dig too deep or too much, this is not our yard.

There is a small deck that overlooks the backyard where I can see the honeysuckle bushes, the shed, and our shovels. My son likes to sit on the steps of the deck, sitting on the steps is an activity when you are three. We have to be careful, the deck is splintering. The property management company has replaced some of the boards, but they're always seem to be new ones ready to bite.

They offered to sell us the house . . . but for the Zillow price estimate.

There is a chain link fence gate that I often pass while walking my dog. The gate is covered by a blanket of wonderfully overgrown strands of lush ivy and flowers gently threatening to cover the “NO TRESPASSING” sign warning Kona and me to keep our distance.

The continuous markers/symbols of property ownership contaminated by the desynchronization between housing affordability and labor wages, cause and visceral interference of my perceived reality. The abstraction caused by this interference pulls my attention from what I want, from what is important, and sometimes from what is vital.

The woven areas of these paintings desynchronize the image as two realities merge and create the unbalanced abstraction that feels very real to me. The unwoven areas present the markers and symbols that daily remind me of my disillusion.