A spoon scrapes across the imprint of my breast to empty a bowl of soup. Clay lips meet real ones to sip at a cup of water. My intent is for the viewer to sit alone and interact with the place setting prepared for them at this dinner table. However, it is up to the viewer whether or not the choice to sit down is made. A choice to sit at this table and interact with their place setting invites the opportunity for an intimate examination of my body. Each ceramic piece combines actual impressions of my physical form with hand-painted anatomical illustrations that are largely obscured unless picked up. A choice to refuse this invitation deprives the viewer of the intricacy of each piece, nonetheless it is still an interaction with the work. Therefore, simply by choosing to enter this environment, the viewer has become a part of the installation and their projections of discomfort--or lack thereof--allow them to perform in the space how they see fit.

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This place setting for one raises questions for the viewer concerning their own relationship to the body. It also provides me with a point of connection to reach a much desired, deeper understanding of how my imagined body and physical body overlap. I am creating a new visual language for my bodily experience. I often experience my body as if it were an object, an independent thing I allow existence out of necessity. Through the aid of life casting, I am able to reflect my body in clay and mimic the way we each see our own bodies; we experience our bodies in fragments, pieced together in the mind. The line between body and object is blurred here through each ceramic piece. By creating and interacting with this installation I am able to assert control I feel I lack over my physical body, while the viewer is provided with a space to examine the way choice also grants them control in this unfamiliar environment.

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