Same Same, but Different engages the conversation of language, meaning, and colonialized perception of objects. This work challenges the dialogue that requires essentialism by decentering Western knowledge of individuality and wholeness and autonomy.

I hack the machines of meaning and identity by creating ambiguous situations that leave space for questions. The objects are ambiguous in effort to work through the futility of reaching a mutual understanding. It unbalances categorical issues through the lens of my personal experience, and the problematic ways craft is perceived in our American culture.

Using ceramic, wood, and found object installations, I filter these notions through my personal narrative, the writings of Annie Dillard, and historical research. This results in messy and precarious objects that create an ambiguous space for unbalanced communication and unknown meaning. The new meaning that is made in the incomplete narrative is represented through the installation of fecund, automated, and translated objects.

By pushing against essentialism, I am pushing against the tool that commodifies me. This allows me to be in a messy place that sees me in relation to forces instead of defined by them.