Structure of Care

Structure of Care studies how we learn to care, what we care for, and our attributes as care-givers. This confessional body of work touches on my timeline as a young adult navigating the tendencies of someone who cares deeply. This exhibition explores personal inclinations within intimacy, crisis, mending, negligence, power, and control. It universally questions when, why, and how we take on the position of care-giver:

Do we spend time caring because we want to or because we feel like we have to? 

Is repetitive attention an act of care or control? 

Who and what do we have the capacity to hold? 

In this series, materials are personified by treating them as reproductions of actions and feelings. Printing becomes a display of intimacy, wrapping as a sign of protection, and meticulousness as the line between care and control. With the introduction of rust, time itself becomes a material. Signaling sustained/repeated action, contact, or connection, rust describes the cycle of our predispositions that consistently repeat and reintroduce themselves. 

This mixed media exhibition expands on the limitations of working with a single medium. It emphasizes ‘the art of the object’ and how ‘objectifying’ forms turn an artwork into an emblem. Structure of Care asks us to feel what the material feels, seek similarities within ourselves, and reflect on how we step into the role of a care-giver.

– Molly Carroll