Title
Creation Date
2018
Preview
Medium
resin, wood, and steel
Description
Dimensions: 5.5 x 3 x 2 feet
Rights
© Ashley Layne Young, 2018. Photo Credit: Allison Corona.
Exhibit Images
Keywords
architecture, welding, sculpture, assembled, carbon, scaffolding
Artist Statement
We strive from the moment we discover our own bodies for individuality. Our caregivers have influence on our sense of self—either genetically or via example. As we walk through life, we shed layers of our identity and refine aspects that we savor. We pay homage to our background. While our caregivers exalt the past, we imagine the future. We feel overprotected. We push. Our caregivers begin to resent us for our modified identities. Our transformation is a personal attack on their hard work. We are viewed as property. They worry about the world as our audience and wish for censorship. A sense of self—that’s what we crave. So, while they’re not looking, we refine. Our doors close. Pride comes as a product of individuality for which we work so hard. We hurt and we love and we grow. We feed ourselves and we need less. They put us down, proving to us that they haven’t been paying attention. We aren’t fooling ourselves. They repeat themselves. Like a broken record, we hear our birth story. We listen with our ears plugged. They feel their hard work was all in vain. “I can’t erase you from me,” we tell them. We start to admire the remnants of our history. We see our skins as an unfolding story. This confidence allows us to open a passage and welcome them back in.
The inner surfaces of this piece represent self transformation. The outer surfaces represent the influence or “caregivers.” There is an clear connection between the old and the refined, and personalizations on the inside. The contrast between the two should be viewed in a current state of hard-earned evolution.