Any line can become a drawing if you manipulate it. And that is precisely what I’ve done with this playful piece, Animist Dancer. Made from discarded computer cords and rendered in the style of a continuous line drawing, she taps her feet and swings her skirt with joy.
Animist Dancer is part of a larger body of work in which I investigate our relationship with objects, particularly those symbolic of American Consumerism. I use materials like discarded cords — items that still technically work, but are thrown away long before they wear out or break because of advancing technology, or worse, planned obsolescence.
For most of human history, people have imbued objects with personalities and agency, a belief system known as animism. But this view is starkly missing from main-stream American culture today. I wonder if it would serve us to bring back some reverence for the objects that lubricate our modern lives. Would we be so quick to move on to the next, shiny thing if we believed they might punish us for treating them so callously and for being so wasteful with them?
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