This class explores sculpture’s capacities as anti-monumental, ephemeral, and performance-based using non-traditional materials and structural methods. These investigations are framed within the broader context of the role traditional sculpture has played in marking political and social power in the public sphere, as well as recent calls for monument removal. We visit sites around the city where sculptures have been removed, counter-narratives installed, and where hidden histories are embedded in seemingly innocuous works. Within this context, we use modes of construction such as tension, gravity, balance, time, and contingency. These forces are examined by creating artworks with non-traditional and ephemeral materials (rope, magnets, fog, and ice). We will create artworks that undergo change over time: degrading or solidifying. With these techniques, we delve into sculpture’s expanded possibilities. Related artists and writers include: Senga Nengudi, Gego, Ruth Asawa, Felix Gonzales-Torres, Eric N. Mack, Kellie Jones, Karen Barad, David Getsy, and Julietta Singh.

How can resurrecting an image or object empower, debase, or contradict? This studio class critically examines these questions, exploring themes from the power dynamics and policing in cultural appropriation to the freedoms of ownership in image culture. We will investigate cloning and copying processes to understand how resurrected images or objects may change in value, be surveilled, and which qualities are retained or lost. In-class workshops and demonstrations will introduce students to techniques linked to the concepts of repetition and permutation, such as mold making, 3D printing, and laser printing. Readings and class discussions will provide a range of historical and contemporary perspectives on these issues. Classic texts by influential writers such as Jean Baudrillard on Simulacra and Simulation and Jacques Derrida on Hauntology will be examined alongside contemporary insights from writers like Simone Browne and Ken McLeod. Case studies, including Tupac's post-mortem appearance at the 2012 Coachella festival and the evolution of deepfakes and AI in daily life, will be considered. The works of artists such as Sondra Perry, Cecile B. Evans, Liz Magic Laser, Samson Young, and Harun Farocki will be explored to illuminate the understanding of reproduction, representation, and reality in the digital age.

This course fuses the digital to the real world. Making sculptures that range from small-scale objects to both proposed and realized installations, students will utilize 21st-century means of drawing at the intersection of the Parsons Making Center. Through Computer Aided Drawing (CAD), rendering, rapid prototyping, and a headfirst dive into the E4 metal shop, students will make their way through their concepts while exploring a range of artists and practitioners who employ similar literacies. This course will examine the work of Baseera Khan, Grace Lee Lawrence, David Howe, Jonathan Brand, David Hammonds, The Ben Keating Foundry, Maker Space NYC, as well as many others.

This studio course explores how materials and fabrication techniques can tell a story. Utilizing various materials, such as up-cycled, found, or traditional, we'll delve into narration, place, and time, literally and metaphorically. Throughout the course, we will be honing practical skills and delving into various materials and media through shop time, discussions, readings, and critiques. Our focus will be on materials and contemporary topics. Students leave the course with enhanced technical skills, a deeper appreciation of materials, and their ability to communicate. We will look at artist such as: Felix Gonzales-Torres, Subodh Gupta, Ai Wei Wei, Lygia Clark, Nick Cave, Do Ho Suh, Simone Leigh. Tehching Hsieh, Cildo Meireles, Janet Cardiff, Rachel Whiteread, Kristen Lucas, Meret Oppenheim, Wolfgang Laib.