Sound Sculptures

In 2007 I took an audio recorder to Documenta to trace its curatorial premise of three guiding questions. I interviewed artists and visitors, recorded installations, performances, lectures, and street sounds, then made a cast iron accordion as a container. I called it “Souvenir”. I continue to make “souvenirs”, sound objects and installations as archives for experience and inquiry. The audio created for these hybrid sound/sculpture objects and installations is informed by narrative documentary as well as non-narrative experimental sound art. In my work I explore a community or environment and through sculpture and sound recreate some essence of that experience. I have worked with diverse groups of people, such as molecular biology research scientists, residents of an Arctic village, a third-generation western boot maker, and various communities of artists.

Volcano

Cast iron, sound, smoke machine, 30” x 36” x 36”

WSEE Radio

Cast iron sculpture, radio receiver, plexiglass, radio transmitter, sound

Sole Sister

Cast iron, sound, wooden shelf, 47” x 18” x 11”

In Sea

Ceramic slip cast seashells, speakers, sound, driftwood

Enchanted Valise

Cast iron, sound

Versing Value: On Women and Money

Collaboration with Mz. Direct. Digital photographs, sound

Epiphany (from the Discover Project)

Blown glass, speakers, sound

The Bench (from the Discover Project)

Blown glass, lab benches, mixed media, speakers, sound

Cleveland Revival

Performance with sound, telephone extensions, web-based map

Desire

Bass, sound

Feast (Detail)

Wax, clay, paper, glass plates, sculpture tools, headphones, sound

Arctic Radio

Cast iron, sound, wooden riser

Souvenir

Cast iron, sound

Cast Sculpture: Iron Clothing

This group of work uses clothing and related items as foundation of conceptual works cast in iron.

Red Hoodie (Back View)

Cast iron with steel clasps

Red Hoodie (Front View)

Cast iron with steel clasps

Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board (Detail)

Cast iron, acrylic block, wood plinth

Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board (Installation view)

Cast iron, acrylic block, wood plinth

Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board (Side view)

Cast iron, acrylic block, wood plinth

Volcano

Cast iron, sound, smoke machine

Sole Sister

Cast iron, sound, wood shelf

Medusa Dress

Cast iron, Manila rope, tulle, and iron and steel interior armature.

Artifact (E.R.A.)

Cast iron with rust and gold patina.

The Blue Dress

Cast iron, found wood

Untitled (American)

Cast iron mounted on beadboard.

Support System

Cast iron

Liberation Lingerie

Cast iron with steel cable.

This piece was created to honor Saudi Arabian women who were allowed to enter the workforce as attendants in lingerie shops in 2012.

Arctic Radio

Cast iron, wood riser, audio components, 14 minute sound loop.

This fur trapper’s cap was cast at Arctic Fires Foundry in Wasilla, Alaska. The piece broadcasts a soundscape of interviews with some of the thirteen residents of the remote Arctic village of Wiseman, Alaska.

Enchanted Valise

Cast iron, wood riser, and audio components with sound loop.

Ball and Chain Handbag

Cast iron, steel chain, antique padlock with key, copper filament lining.

Wiglet

Sandcast bronze tile from vintage wig, 10”x10”

Wiglet 2

Sandcast bronze tile from vintage wig, 10” x 10”

Cast Sculpture: Glass

This group of works is based on vintage chemistry laboratory glass. Each piece is a solid block of clear glass with a hollow space where the shape of the glass vessel is visible. Each piece is unique, with irregularities and imperfections such as air bubbles and embedded sand, because the glass blocks were handmade with a sandcasting method in which liquid glass is poured into a loose sand and clay mold.

Crowns

Six pink glass crowns. Sizes vary from 5”x 5” x 7” to 9”x 9” x 6”

Fenetres du Ciel (Sky Windows) - 4 clear glass kites

Vessel (Test Tube Group)

Clear sandcast glass block with negative impression of chemistry glass. Approximately 7” x 7” x 2”

Vessel (Stoppered Bottle)

Clear sandcast glass block with negative impression of chemistry glass. Approximately 7” x 7” x 2”

Vessel (Volumetric Flask)

Clear sandcast glass block with negative impression of chemistry glass. Approximately 7” x 7” x 2”

Vessel (Floating Flask)

Clear sandcast glass block with negative impression of chemistry glass. Approximately 7” x 7” x 2”

Vessel (Floating Test Tube)

Clear sandcast glass block with negative impression of chemistry glass. Approximately 7” x 7” x 2”

Vessel (Two Test Tubes)

Clear sandcast glass block with negative impression of chemistry glass. Approximately 7” x 7” x 2”

Vessel (Test Tube)

Clear sandcast glass block with negative impression of chemistry glass. Approximately 5” x 12” x 2”

Vessel (Narrow Test Tube)

Clear sandcast glass block with negative impression of chemistry glass. Approximately 5” x 12” x 2”

Vessel (Funnel with Flask)

Clear sandcast glass block with negative impression of chemistry glass. Approximately 4” x 7” x 2”

Vessel (Floating Beeker)

Clear sandcast glass block with negative impression of chemistry glass. Approximately 7” x 7” x 2”

Vessel (Floating Beeker detail)

Detail of negative space of chemistry glass in glass block sculpture.

Multimedia/ Installation/Collaboration

I create objects and installations that explore concepts about communication and sense of place. My projects layer personal narrative with societal issues, and often engage the audience as creator/collaborator.

As a sculptor who works in expanded media, I create objects out of materials like rubber, plaster, metal, wood, found objects, etc., but I also use audio, video, photography, writing, and performance if it is important to communicating an idea. I am interested in both the process and the outcome.

Remains

Remains is a tale of women and the eternal return of troubling histories of oppression. What compromises do we make with that inheritance so that we can live? A dancer grazes among cow bones and petticoat clouds. The music draws her in and out of memories, carrying the past burden of her ancestors. A cow bell bound to her back makes her every movement known. She weighs the choices of her own life, unsure if her path is one of freedom or one she is predestined to repeat.

This project was conceived by Ma 間 Collective as a choreographic response to the visual art installation “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” by sculptor Susan Byrnes. It was performed live and filmed at the Dayton Contemporary Gallery in March 2025.

Performance and Film Produced by Ma 間 Collective: Susan Byrnes (Artist), Nicola Resto (Choreographer), Katie Moorhead (Dancer), Luis Resto (Composer and Pianist) with Nora Barton (Cellist)

Film Directed, Shot, and Edited by: Thiele Brothers (Kyle, Eli, and Cole). Sound recording by Isaac Williams

In Sea (First Version)

Ceramic slip seashells, 9 minute sound loop, audio components, wood. This piece is an homage to composer Terry Riley’s famous work “In C”.

The Sweeping Meditation

45 cast resin brooms, each 32”x 5” x 2”

Discover

Two-channel video installation featuring text and images from molecular biology research which immerses viewers in the mesmerizing beauty of microscopic imagery of organisms and the mystery and complexity of scientific language. Installed at Gallery One One, Brazee St. Studios, Cincinnati, OH.

The Bench

Audio installation featuring a soundtrack of laboratory research scientists discussing their daily habits and work environment in the process of making discoveries. Installed at Gallery One One, Brazee St. Studios, Cincinnati, OH.

Feast

Interactive installation featuring a dining table and place settings with artmaking materials (clay, wax, paper) and audio of four women sculptors talking about their artmaking processes. Visitors listen while exploring materials the sculptors discuss in the soundtrack. Installation at Fitton Center for the Arts, Hamilton, OH.

Versing Value

Collaboration with art collective Mz. Direct. This installation with photography and two-channel soundtrack features stories told by a broad demographic of women about their relationship with and perceptions of money. Originally created for the exhibit “Women and Money” at the Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Installation photo from Radial Gallery, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH.

Cleveland Revival

Participatory project for internet and smartphone, culminating in live performance. From interviews with Clevelanders about their favorite aspects of their city, a location map was created and posted on a web page. A telephone number was established so others could call and find descriptions of the places whether or not they could visit the locations. A '“revival tent” was installed for a performance event at the Sculpture Center in Cleveland, OH, where visitors could testify (via writing and recordings) about their love of their city so it could be added to the Cleveland Revival documentation.

Motion Capture

Participatory installation with 2-channel video, photographs, light costumes, and dance floor. The work focuses on capturing the movements of dance and everyday life with lights through still photography and video, making the invisible visible. Created during a Yeck Fellowship residency at the Dayton Art Institute and in collaboration with 4-6th grade students from Cleveland Elementary School in Dayton, OH. Video produced in collaboration with Tess Cortes. Installation at the Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH.

Sweet Dreams (from Domestic Departures Exhibit)

Cast sugar headboard and footboard with plexiglass, fabric, and wood frame. Part of solo exhibition featuring multiple domestic space oriented installations in a century-old mansion turned gallery.

Patterns That Connect

Table, chairs, yarn, knitting needles, steel spool mount, paper tags. Participatory project that invites visitors to knit on either end of a continuously expanding garment, providing people with the opportunity to share knowledge of the craft or practice it together. Identifying tags include all makers as the garment grows. Image from installation at Fitton Center for the Arts, Hamilton, OH.

Mending (Antioch) Is Better Than Ending

Video projection, magnetic tape, shredder, shredded postmodern and postcolonial theory Xeroxes, video tapes, reclaimed architectural doorframe and transom from Antioch dormitory renovation. This participatory installation features a bed with video projection headboard fashioned from materials reclaimed from the closing and subsequent reopening of Antioch College in Yellow Springs, OH. Materials such as abandoned Xeroxed teaching materials, 1980’s social justice video tapes, reel to reel classical music tapes, and architectural remnants were used to fashion an imagined dormitory room where a student’s dreams and aspirations are woven. Surrounding the bed are weaving frames where, during the course of the exhibition, students were invited to shred and weave their application essays into a “blanket” for the bed. The bed could be reconfigured as a giant book, and the weaving frames attached as pages. The finished piece is part of the collection of Antioch College.

Cast Paintings: Viscosity Series, Fields

For ten years I have been developing an ongoing body of 2D castings with polyurethane rubber, a material mostly used for 3D sculptural mold-making. The resulting works are a hybrid of drawing, painting and sculpture. Although the works appear flat, their material has a thickness that is transparent, allowing me to work in thin layers to create physical depth. My imagery is abstract, although I often draw upon themes from a broad spectrum of the natural world, from the intense red of geraniums in my garden to microscopic images of axons and dendrites connecting in neuronal networks in the brain.

My current series, called “Fields”, plays with the notion of landscape - how we see it and imagine it to be. These works I consider to be internal and external landscapes. I’m trying to visualize these spaces in a new way and with an unusual material. The images consist of either single or multiple square tiles that are composed as a single image.

The transparent and opaque qualities of this material make it well suited to explore our changing field of vision in a world of ever-present screens and pixels. Our depth perception is adjusting to a flatter, more shallow visual space due to tech devices. Landscape, often a deep and encompassing visual space, in these works is intentionally flat, repetitious, boldly colored often with strong color contrast relationships, and without a singular focal or vanishing point to anchor or direct the viewer throughout the visual field.

Asphodel Fields

Cast polyurethane rubber, 24” x 48” x 2”, $3800

Pool

Cast polyurethane rubber, 48” x 48” x 2”, $7500

Massillon Museum exhibit "The Viscosity Series"

Prairie Triptych

Cast polyurethane rubber, 24” x 72” x 2”, $6500

Red of Geraniums

Cast polyurethane rubber, 24” x 48” x 2”, $3800

Desert Garden

Cast polyurethane rubber, 36” x 48” x 2”, $6000

Field (White)

Cast polyurethane rubber, 48” x 48” x 2”, $7500

Cosmos

Cast polyurethane rubber, 24” x 48” x 2”, $3800

Night Irises

Cast polyurethane rubber, 24” x 24” x 2”, $2400

Curtain

Cast polyurethane rubber, 24” x 48” x 2”, $3800

Gingko Leaves on Water

Cast polyurethane rubber, 24” x 24” x 2, $2400

Echo

Cast polyurethane rubber, 24” x 24” x 2, $2200

Begonias

Cast polyurethane rubber, 24” x 24” x 2”, $2400

Morning Glories

Cast polyurethane rubber, 12” x 24” x 1”, $1100

Ghosts 2

Cast polyurethane rubber, 12” x 12” x 1”, $500

Ghosts 3

Cast polyurethane rubber, 12” x 12” x 1”, $500

Ghosts 1

Cast polyurethane rubber, 12” x 12” x 1”, $500

Cast Paintings: Viscosity Series, Circles and Dot Patterns

Works from the “Circles” and “Dot Patterns” series explore the formal possibilities of the material that creates both a physical depth and the illusion of depth using simple shapes and patterns. The pieces exploit the viscosity of the material at various stages of curing to create hard and soft boundaries, shadows, and irregular forms.

Division

Cast polyurethane rubber, 24” x 24”, $2200