Isolated Incidents

Having fallen under the proverbial oncoming bus but then somehow surviving a viral pandemic that eventually wiped out most of his friends and peers, the artist attempts in "Isolated Incidents" to recollect himself. Since most of this installation and the materials in it could be destroyed by just a breeze, it is ironic that "Lock," a four foot pyramid of human hair was one of the few pieces that incurred no damage from the 1994 Los Angeles Northridge earthquake when the work was featured in a group exhibition, aptly named "Life, Death and Surface." In fact, the works in this series of sculptures are intended as ephemera, or documentation of the events and processes of their making. For instance, the artist's hand written logs and notes indicate that most of the hair was collected in tony San Francisco neighborhoods from high end salons that well understood aesthetic commodification. Whereas, the records also note that the artist was not able to collect this material from salon workers in gay parts of town during this period, since they emphatically considered it healthe hazard waste material and, thus, this project as highly suspect. This installation in its entirety was exhibited at Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco, CA in 1995. Component sculptures from this body of work travelled to Diverse Works in Houston, TX; the John Thomas Gallery in Santa Monica, CA; Spaces in Cleveland, OH; and The Alternative Museum in New York, NY from 1993 through 1996.