Artist's Statement


Time Traveling is a sculptural work which calls forth and examines the shifting biases that surround human predilection, and how it shifts over time. A 12” diameter black circle with 1” walls (emulating the style of a Hot Wheels track) contains ten matchbox die-cast car replicas. The cars are arranged in order from oldest to newest, as well as in a gradient from most visibly damaged to least. However, the oldest car is pristine and unaltered, while the newest is missing a wheel, part of the roof, has shattered windows, and is covered in dents and rust. 


The matchbox cars are made to be exact die cast replicas of their larger functional counterparts and vary from high cost luxury brands and sports cars to more modest family vehicles. Each vehicle however, has been desired in its own way and has been wanted enough to be made into a model car and sold. The same box of cars containing the Blue 1940’s Morris Minor Saloon, held the 2020 Land Rover Defender 90, suggesting that both cars are valuable enough to be sold together. 


Although today we may acknowledge that the MM Saloon is a much more valuable and sought after vehicle than the Land Rover, there was a point in time when the Saloon was considered tacky and behind the times in comparison to newer cars. Time Travel asks one to consider, at what point does an object go from being desirable, to undesirable, and when does it become desirable again? Why must we as humans reject our creations, only to return to them later with renewed appreciation? And why doesn’t everything we create get to return to the spotlight of collective coveting?


The careful process of cutting away pieces of the newer vehicles, sanding, and painting over them emulates broken windshields, rust covered bodies and scraped paint, as might happen to a neglected older vehicle. However, it also calls to mind the difference in the quality and longevity of modern vehicles in comparison to vintage ones. Will we be able to covet these cars when we are looking back from the future? Or will the constant drive for faster and cheaper construction at the cost of quality mean that cars which are new now won’t survive to be wished for 85 years from now

Photo Documentation

IDeation


What subjects are you thinking through?

Time and how time affects objects and people. How things come in and out of fashion. The cyclical nature of human interest and desire. Consumption, over consumption, and how the never-ending quest for greater profit margins creates a downward spiral of quality and longevity.


What ideas came to your mind after being introduced to something new?

The idea to use matchbox cars, which are cast from real cars, rather than other toy cars which do not as closely mimic real-world objects, occurred to me only after I started searching for toy cars to use in my work.


What is behind the magic? How did you arrive at the final piece?

I have been very interested in miniatures and realistic dioramas lately. Being able to create something that feels real on a super small scale makes it more impactful in my opinion.

Influences + Inspiration


  • The roundness of Untitled (Night Train) by Hammons.


  • Lori Nix's dioramas, weathered and distressed in a realistic and real feeling way while being miniature.


  • The concept of the ouroboros.


  • My own experiences with vehicular destruction and planned obsolescence.


  • The current economic and political climate in America.

Works Cited

Dose, Dee. “Tutorial: How to Build 180° Curved Cardboard Turns.” Redline Derby Racing, 2022,

www.redlinederby.com/topic/tutorial-how-to-build-180-curved-cardboard-turns/5103. Accessed 25 Feb. 2025..

Used as a loose guide when building the track.

Kino, Carol. “A Peephole Perspective on Tiny Worlds.” The New York Times, 9 June 2011,

www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/arts/design/otherworldly-dioramas-at-museum-of-arts-and-design.html. Accessed 25 Jan. 2025..

Inspired by realism on such a small scale.

MoMA. “David Hammons. Untitled (Night Train). 1989.” The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, 2025,

www.moma.org/collection/works/166461?sov_referrer=art_term&art_term_slug=found-object. Accessed 25 Feb. 2025..

Influenced idea of repeated objects and circular arrangement.

Nix, Lori. “Accidentally Kansas.” Lori Nix.net, Lori Nix / Kathleen Gerber, 2025, www.lorinix.net/

accidentally-kansas/812umecd6xq2306bd6vn3nk5ro4igm. Accessed 25 Feb. 2025..

Same artist as inspirational diorama has art featuring weathered vehicles.

Wikipedia Contributors. “Morris Minor.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 7 Nov. 2024,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Minor..

I googled this vehicle because I did not know in what year it was made and needed to place it in the timeline.