grater

(2020) I work on making a self-portrait through found objects, in the context of Objet Trouvé+, an online residency curated by Apurva Kulkarni. The cheese grater is an obvious choice to represent my skin. I have drawn this object many times before to represent myself as skin but I am using the physical object for the first time. The ball of string used alongside is a metaphor for hiding the rough surface. I interact spontaneously with both objects and record the outcomes.

From these explorations, I want to keep:
– the space that opens with the act of handling and playing with two seemingly random objects, the importance of this space and the feelings that arise – an antidote to working from the mind space;
– the equation myself = my skin and its implications.

(2024) I adorn and transform the grater, document it, and undo the transformation afterwards so that the grater returns to its neutral state as functional object. This time, I use red string. It feels closer to skin. My daughter holds the object. I pass skin to her. Will she have my skin?

(2022) As part of the series of ceramic Chairs of Discomfort, the following chairs, which I name Chairs of Itching, are directly inspired by the cheese grater. They inspire the lines: Who will caress a sea urchin, Who will caress my skin?