Hers

2024

Discarded plastic toys, hand painted cotton rope

110”h x 136”w x 73”d

Hers is one in a fleet of Push Toy Monstrosities: gigantic push toys made from discarded toys lashed together with hand painted cotton rope. The toys, all collected from people’s garbage heaps around the City of Buffalo, are anywhere from forty plus years old to almost new, toys that you may even have in your own backyard. They are engraved with play and dirt, and scribbled with the children’s names who once played with them.

Hers shares my dedication to the environment and saves these relics of play from our local landfills while having fun doing it. Hers explores new themes within my work: wonder, gender identity, consumerism, garbage picking, fort building and carrying one's entire life on their back. The endless supply of toys once gave me great anxiety but have now become my building blocks for infinite creation.