Living Arrangements, 2016

Work in this show juxtaposes the ideas of 'home' and 'landscape' and asks the audience to consider where is the limit of 'domestic?' Taylor transforms domestic images and artifacts through the use of common and elemental materials such as dirt, flour, and glass. The result is both reverence and a call to action, to extend the sense of belonging and caring that we associate with home out to a larger scale -- the soil, air, and water that give a home to all life.

I believe that materials have a voice of their own and I look for ways to allow those voices to contribute to the idea of an artwork.  For example, 'dirt' refers to something unwanted, disposable, even offensive.  Those who are attuned to the earth will correct you and call it 'soil,' a life-giving medium that should be nurtured carefully.  What happens then, when dirt is combined with something elegant or precious like lace?  Can the delicacy of the lace elevate dirt into something that deserves to be treasured?

As a society we are beginning to realize that our food and energy sources are in danger, and it is time to acknowledge the truth that we must love a thing in order to take care of it well.  Science and technology have succeeded through analytical and reductive thinking, but perhaps the problems we face can only be solved by building on those things that connect the world rather than take it apart.  It starts at home -- and home is everywhere.