The Homeomorphic Mutt: Emergent Topologies in Sculptural Assemblage

Abstract

Through a creative process that involves transplanting and reconfiguring rescued raw materials, rejected remnants, by-products, and found objects, I engage internally with my own colonial transplantations and reconfigurations that have shaped an emergent identity. I use the universal languages of alchemy and abstract mathematics to help articulate a multiple-storied selfhood in my practice. A “homeomorphic mutt” describes a selfhood that emerges through a sympoietic (made with) individuation process in a shared collective requiring authentic differentiation. The simultaneous fractal and holistic nature of non-autonomous sovereignty relates to this kind of individuation, depending on archetype, inheritance, integration, and context. I explore questions such as “How can the parts of a whole transform, or be transformed by their own topology?”, “How does alchemical transformation symbolically echo a lived creative practice?”, and “How can provisionality and the preservation of ancient patterns co-exist in sculptural assemblage?”