Chasing Dreams @ African American Arts and Culture Complex

This work was shown in a Juneteenth exhibition in the Fillmore at the AAACC, curated by the artist K-Dub. It was the first time I exhibited this sculpture.

The piece is an otherworldly, futuristic landscape made from scrap steel. I imagined it as a scene from another world, with mountains, a large planet or sun, and a cut metal circle with rays extending out from it. The surface includes different rust patterns, which add to the sense of age, atmosphere, and terrain.

This was also the first time I etched scarification-like markings into metal panels as an aesthetic element. I began using the welding gun not just to join pieces of metal together, but also to create decorative marks and surface detail. That shift opened up a new way for me to think about sculpture, where the welding itself could become part of the visual language of the work.