Change of Heart (변심), 2021
cast bronze, plasma-cut steel, Japanese ogura paper, aluminum wire
88 x 83 x 37 in.
223 x 210 x 94 cm.

Individual components of this work are a partial representation of a Purkinje cell, a type of brain cell whose absence is linked to memory loss in diseases such as Alzheimer’s. A digital image of the Purkinje cell was used to cut twenty, 20×20 in. sheets of steel using a machine and a hand-held plasma cutter. The bronze parts were originally modeled in clay, then cast using a lost-wax method. The woven aluminum wire and the porous paper visually mimic each other and the withering branches of the brain cell. The sculpture portrays memory loss as an act of betrayal to the beauty of one’s accumulated life experiences.

On View: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health | U.S. (2021- current)
Photographs taken at Van Every / Smith Galleries | Davidson College, U.S.

Press: Scientific American