This exhibition, Caught Skies and Pillowed Pines (Black Forest), is the fourth iteration of this idea—to build an invented landscape to think about childhood selves and to find where they retreat to in the shadows of adulthood. 

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Black pleather pines overtake the scene, appearing menacing at first but are stuffed with fluff. Their perceived thorniness is, in fact, soft, playfully stacked, handmade pillows. Black sand, sold as “scenic play sand,” is formed into eternal sandcastles that do not crumble, shift, or wash away with the ocean. Clouds, made out of instant papier-mâché, are pinned, squashed, or caught by other objects within the landscape. Their presence is now redefined as hard, grounded, and fixed. Remaining untouched, the clouds—and the dreams they symbolize—are static and enduring. 

 

Upon entering this invented landscape, the viewer decides how to navigate it—how close to step, how to move through it, and how its parts grow, function, and decay. This act of exploration mirrors childhood itself—a time spent piecing together the logic of the world given to them, questioning its structures, and sensing its hidden rules.

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The forest—often considered a transformational space in children’s stories—is built of many parts that come together as sculptural installations. Each solo exhibition offers a chance to return to the forest and uncover an unexplored patch. Each one serves as a psychological space to acknowledge the loss of childhood, as well as act as a site of its possible regeneration.