i've mangaged to mix metaphors but not show my face around here much

so it's been almost a year since i've updated this, and i don't have that much to show for myself. however, today was a day of success - if productivity can be deemed success (that truly is a discussion for another day, but lets just say yes! yes it is a good measure, and move on. yes?)


i've had a battle in my mind going on for a while, regarding architecture, houses, skeletal systems, constellations and keys. somehow in my mind they very much go together, yet when i step away from what i've worked on, i feel the need to prove it more. today was the first time in a while where i've been able to put things together that make sense to me in all ways. i'll have to thank wikipedia and the authors of all entries related to keys.


sometimes the more obvious things still need to be pointed out so that you can really let them sink in. the concept of the skeleton key was my obvious check for now, since i've been holding on to several for a few years now, and wondering what it is that draws me.

to sum it up quickly, it's the concept of a bare bones tool that allows access to all rooms in a house. in my mind, keys are interchangeable with words (other tools for access) and houses/homes are interchangeable with a person. structures and tools to construct and move between ideas.

(i can't help also trying to draw some connections to Beetlejuice, and Lydia gaining access to the attic with her skeleton key.)(and at one point trying to open the door, but the key is forced out from the other side.)


the fascinating thing for me was realising, that all depictions of key holes from my child hood (cartoons, movies with peeping toms and pictures of my own i drew) were from the kind of lock which consists of wards, and is the same kind related to the skeleton key. after my mini crash course in understanding how locks and keys have evolved over time, i was able to identify the difference kinds of keys i have from cleaning out the garage and poking around my grandmother's place. there is a treasure of skeleton keys, each totally different, yet possessing the same function:

to provide access to a specific set of locks, where the skeleton key is interchangeable with only one other key for each lock it encounters.

and i guess this is a good point where i can segue into what this really means to me, rather than blathering on and on about keys.




the stories i've been trying to write for a few months to start building more literal constellations off of have been a back and forth battle of sorts as well. trying to fit words here and there, trying to not sound entirely self indulgent and i guess, more importantly, trying to make it all fit together easily. image with text. meaning with words. etc etc.

this idea that the master key will fit all points of a given set while sharing only one point with an outside key provides a fairly decent direction to move in. one story for all points, with tangential arcs only associated with one point.

and another interchangeable defining point is added here: stories for people, points for bodies, all of it for structure.


and here's where i stop for now, because i think those ideas are too big for me to carry all of them right now. and i should also figure out if it even makes sense just yet.

paper keys get you everywhere

So I've figured out how I want my keys to look. I tried paper mache, plaster casting and so on and so forth...even cutting them out of Yupo. But, card board it is.






Obviously, inaccessibility is important. But I'm also looking at replacement. These keys were keys sitting around the garage for the last 20+ years and no one actually knows what they're for, short of the key that came with the lock.

I've come across several wood boxes that are divided into 3 compartments (thank you HRM gift shop). I think those boxes and these keys will be combined.

As for the jewelry box from oh-so-long-ago, it's almost done. a few more layers of wax and we'll call it.

Pictures and pictures to follow.

But, if I may be so bold, what do you think when you see these keys? Rude, polite, fantastic, whatever. I need some words for it.

poratability is key

Behold my new treasure:

I set out today looking for one thing to come home with, and here it is. A not-too-big and not-too-small box with drawers and a cover. I'll have to yank out that crazy purple liner, and change the lock, but! it's my new transportable wunderkammer.

For years I've been obsessing over Wunderkammers and within the past month I've developed a use for said obsession-- making my own in various forms. (My theory and reasoning into why it's I'm doing this and the point will follow in its own post, for now, this is all about the box and what I will do with it.)

So, for this round of wunderkammerness, I will be removing the liner, pouring wax, inserting wooden ledges to form a lip for plexi to rest on, and then i will be using this first batch of keys to create coton linter casts.

I have about 100 keys of various sizes, shapes and purposes--these are just the most exciting.

I envision this box turning out to be the collected dissection remnants. When the drawers are opened, you will see these paper keys pinned down and dissected; the black wax acts as it does in traditional dissection trays. There will be text, but placement and words aren't decided yet. I just can't stop thinking about this image of the paper/fragile/meltable key.

Another project I've taken on is my locket:

I bought it from one of the street jewelry sellers in soho for remarkably cheap. The left side is muddled text from Emerson. The only legible "forwards" text reads: "Then the...cape felt by him...The sky is less gran...the population." The backwards "legible" text reads: "or to...senses rain on this...the animal". On the right side I'm going to insert a skeltal study drawing of an elephant.

In some ways I want to embrace a more performative role with building these spaces/objects/relationships. Instead of just showing my hand while making these things, maybe become an actual story teller/performer. Wearing some of the objects (I wear the locket every day as it is) and maybe becoming one of the objects.

This is all leading somewhere. Somewhere being another post.