2025

Abject Object #1 (Nose)

Ancient bronze, sterling silver, black spinel, manufactured earring, prop money, corn starch, leather cord, acrylic paint

Abject Object #2 (Mouth)

Ancient bronze, sterling silver, copper, enamel, manufactured earring, donated lipstick, leather cord, acrylic paint

Abject Object #3 (Ear)

Ancient bronze, sterling silver, manufactured earring, found AirPod, leather cord, acrylic paint

Abject art explores what society finds unsettling. It focuses on the messy or taboo aspects of the body that disrupt ideas of purity and control. Rooted in Julia Kristeva’s theory of the abject, it confronts things like orifices, fluids, and decay that blur the boundary between self and other. Abject art also often challenges expectations placed on feminine bodies, exposing how ideals of perfection are imposed, policed, and ultimately impossible.

In Abject Objects, the nose, mouth, and ear become portals through which modern forms of consumption enter the self. Each bolo ties together precious metals and discarded or mass-manufactured items to question what we value.

Each body part is adorned with a cheap, gaudy earring, a deliberate contrast to the crafted metals that points to the loss of traditional craft and the overwhelming intake of poor-quality consumer goods.

Seen together, these bolo ties reveal how money, drugs, beauty expectations, and digital noise find their way inside us.

These objects of adornment ask viewers to confront their own habits of consumption and to recognize the ways the body becomes both vessel and battleground for the forces that shape everyday desire.