3D Installation, Video, Performance (2018)

‘Stinkadena’ was created with the Square Peg Bursary for Artlink Hull. The work explores the juxtaposition of living in a mobile home that never moves and NASA Space Center, which happens to be just up the road. Based in Pasadena Texas, the home of close to twenty oil refineries and one of the biggest petrochemical processing areas in the world, it's an exploration of the erosion of a childhood dream. We begin to understand that this socially poor civilian may never actually make it into space, but will more than likely get a job down at the Shell, Exxon, or Diamond Shamrock. The adult mind has to settle for what is possible even when the child mind may have dreamed of space travel, looking outward, and utopias. One small step for man, one giant leap. Some very dark themes begin to emerge here; poor health, alcoholism and domestic violence all exist in this space of poor social mobility, broken dreams and low expectations. In this work I become the main character of my story, based on a man who put a gun in my Momma’s mouth in front of me when I was 5 years old. I can control what he does and says and whether or not he feels remorse.

Welcome to Stinkadena, where the air is greener but the truth is meaner...