NEVER THE SAME AGAIN

NEVER THE SAME AGAIN is a series of sculptures made from broken and discarded Slinky® toys, completed in 2022. The bent Slinky® is a metaphor for an injured body — once you bend or distort a Slinky®, it never moves quite the same way it used to. In the case of the Slinky®, once it stops functioning properly it is often discarded or neglected.

A human body, by contrast, once broken or sick, must continue on with its limited or new way of functioning. A body broken, injured, sick (or different in its particular way) may function the way it is unexpected, yet it retains its beauty, joy, meaning. It deserves full expression and presence.

In the same way the bent Slinky® becomes beautiful and fascinating in these sculptures, retaining the original essence of its movement. In each sculpture the broken Slinky® is placed on a podium of reverence, and interwoven with medical detritus in order to become a complete metaphor for the broken body. Its past — full of joyful movement — continues on in a new form.

Above: Never the Same Again #01, IV tubing, wire, fabric, cotton, medical wrap, Slinky®
Below: Never the Same Again #02, medical mask, medical wrap, cotton, wire, fabric, Slinky®

I use gold in each sculpture to transform waste materials into something valuable and worth preserving.

Above: Never the Same Again #03, IV tubing, wire, fabric, cotton, medical wrap, prescription sticker, Slinky®
Below: Never the Same Again #04, medical mask, medical wrap, cotton, wire, fabric, Slinky®

Medical tubing and wire mimic the rhythms of the Slinky®’s characteristic movement.

Above: Never the Same Again #05, IV tubing, wire, fabric, cotton, medical wrap Slinky®
Below: Never the Same Again #06, medical mask, IV regulator, medical wrap, cotton, wire, fabric, Slinky®

Each sculpture illustrates the simultaneous joy and sorrow of living within a broken body and medical system.

Above: Never the Same Again #07, IV tubing, wire, fabric, cotton, medical wrap Slinky®