Inspired by material culture and the way objects can dictate movement through space, ENTER HERE is an installation comprised of ceramic objects and everyday materials that together, create an environment that paradoxically possesses the subtle control one might perceive in a garden, and the transitional entropy of a construction site.

From a distance, two forms echo that of a construction delineator post or pylon, but upon approach, the shapes morph into corporeal tubes that hold the gesture of their making. The cardboard-brown exposed clay-body recalls the banal object, and adds a sense of vulnerability. The posts have a weighty presence and oscillate between structural security and fragility. Function—a term intrinsically bound to ceramics— is repurposed as handles are screwed to the walls to support the rope. At the designated entrance point, the rope dangles adjacent to the handle attached the wall, implying the potential for complete restriction.

Sagging between the stanchions, the yellow synthetic rope elicits a sensual reference to high end lobbies and exclusive events, but that reading quickly seems out of place. The rope connects the posts, simultaneously creating a path and an obstacle that the viewer must navigate. A sense of exclusivity is apparent beyond the cordoned off area; one must search for an alternative entrance and proceed with caution. The viewer receives some sense of permission to enter the space that is reflected in the title, yet the affective feeling of breaking a rule lingers, given the nature of the white cube and the emergent properties of the materials.

All paths point to a central position that is void. There is no distinguishable end or an assumed reward or gratification as the rope loops back towards itself. An opaque plastic sheet drapes around two sculptural forms resembling precarious stacks of cinder blocks that hold the central space. While these forms are not a physical obstruction, the plastic acts as a barrier to sight (site). The banality of cinder blocks reimagined in ceramic, positioned for safe keeping under protective plastic, points to the absurdity of this constructed space.

This conceptually generated work considers the hierarchy of materials and the ways in which objects script behavior in physical space. Using installation as a mode of phenomenological experience, the clay sculptures act as physical barriers that simultaneously allow access while impeding movement, causing the viewer to stop and question if they have truly been afforded the permission to enter the space or not.