France Rreally
Seven Wishes
The artist’s body and spirit is reimagined separated, mixed up, and pieced back together, as if traversing multiple dimensions and taking a different shape in this space and time. The final form blends inspiration from the supernatural, body horror aesthetics, and everyday rituals, with each charm representing a wish he makes for himself and those around him, such as health, knowledge, connection with nature, and a relationship with magic. As an abstracted and unconventional self portrait, the piece vulnerably bares its naked flesh and inner thoughts alike as an act of persistence in queer personhood.
2024. Single channel video, computer, hi-res color display, USB drive, thermoplastic, metal wire, vinyl, Vitamin D pill, marker on shrink plastic, stick, found objects.
7.5 x 2.5 x 19.5"
MyndBeyondBody
Three distinct characters played by the artist reach out for connection from the other side of the screen in a video composed of still images taken on iPhone, digital camera, and photo scanner. This tactility extends through an interconnected handmade network of symbolic found urban detritus that recall verdant overgrown flora—an approximation of a common chain-link fence. These layered portals disrupt false binaries of on- and offline, and individual and collective, and ask the viewer to rebuild the present moment in resistance to prevailing conditions with any and all materials available.
2024. Single-channel digital video, plastic crates, metal wire, acrylic paint, glass bead, hand-carved avocado seed, perfume bottle, metal screw, metal spring, wooden stick, hair clip, air-dry clay, found objects.
Memory Palace
Taking its title from a location in the mind self-created to store information and search for later recall, the installation creates a link between the mental and physical experiences we live. It encourages an esoteric search for meaning through an insistence of the significance of visual patterns.
2024. Single-channel digital video, acrylic sheets, clear silicone.
Be The Drama You Wish To See In The World
Inspired by online networked culture, surreal characters star in a reality-TV-inspired electronic puppet show. The infrastructure creating and sharing online stories abstracts and unravels into a web of computer chips, lost objects, and broken technology, revealing bundles of information traveling along a nervous system towards its destination. The piece engages with the commodification of human experience for entertainment and the materiality of the systems built to support it.
2022. 2-channel video installation, computer, hi-res color display, USB drive, shrink plastic, permanent marker, wire, yarn, fabric, found objects.
34 x 20 x 36"
Common Charms
Common Charms are portable soft sculptures and sewn drawings designed to be integrated into everyday life: covering a hole in clothing, clipped on a backpack, or used as a bookmark. Each one embodies straightforward symbols with interpretive associations, offering protection and security to the wearer. Their material accessibility and their seamless integration into our lives (much like the objects they picture) make them charms for agency and resourcefulness, while celebrating the profound meaning of simple gestures in the face of a tumultuous reality.
2022-Present. Upcycled fabric, thread, and hardware.
Portal (Stephen's Gifts)
The house acts a sanctuary for an individual’s sense of self, protecting from the outside while providing a safe structure to manifest unconscious desires. This central structure is grounded by an adornment of trinkets—small gifts given to the artist by his partner—to emphasize security through human connection as an antidote to isolation.
2025. Fabric, thread, hardware, rope, gifted objects.
7 x 5 x 12"