MOPS
12 handmade mop forms - cotton, wood, concrete, interior trim paint
In Mops, an everyday domestic tool becomes a sculpture meditation on repetition and a surreal reminder of the ghostly presence and absence felt by a long legacy. I constructed each mop from wood, paint, 400 feet of cotton rope and over 10 pounds of concrete. Each mop head is created with 120 circular wrappings, a gesture that echoes handcrafts passed down through generations of women.
Gathered in multiples of three, their numbers capture ideas of continuity and transformation, referencing the archetypal trinity of Grandmother, Mother, and Daughter or Ancestral, Present, and Emerging aspects of the self.
Their gravity-defying forms suggest a task interrupted. The frozen gestures take on a ghostly presence, as though the absent bodies who once performed these motions still linger in the room. Their presence is made visible through absence. In this work, an ordinary task is ritualized, carrying forward traces of ancestry and the quiet weight of inheritance.
I explore the construction of selfhood by tracing familial influence through matrilineage. Beyond both genetics and physiology, “inherited” gestures, tendencies, patterns, and word choices are passed down through repeated exposure and imitation, rather than being taught, echoing those who came before and shaping the selves we inhabit.
