Solo show at Frostburg State University in Frostburg Maryland, curated by April Wright.

The idea of CHEAP is fascinating in its contradictions and misdirection. CHEAP as a descriptor under neoliberal capitalism–cheap food, cheap clothes, cheap resources–is a signifier of a lie. Whether it be in stolen wages and environmental destruction, there are always hidden costs behind cheap. This commodification of labor and land is justified by the belief that working-class people are unworthy of the wealth created from their own labor.

WORTH stands in contradiction to commodification. Autonomous demarcation, identification, and creation of worth are acts of system rebellion. With the potential to be determined both by the individual and the collective, WORTH can be democratic and participatory, regenerative and spontaneous, and can exist whole life cycles outside of markets and speculation.

CHEAP operates as my container for the materials I use, my working-class identity, and the visibility of labor both as an action and a movement. WORTH is my motivation, a desired outcome, and a necessary ingredient to building new within the shell of the old. My work explores the craft that is born of necessity and the subversion of dependency when it is built on solidarity with both place and people.