He was seeing a man he was not in love with. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to commit. I made him do things he wouldn’t do like kissing on a first date. He told me he liked the sound of my voice and I called him a bastard for being so tender, so loving. We said goodbye on the phone, one kiss after the other.

“Shaped like hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades (the suits of playing cards), these decorative boxes are reminiscent of commercial packaging for jewelry or gifts. They invoke the generous and complicated language of romance and chances taken when playing games of the heart, and the way mass produced objects take on a personal meaning when in close proximity to the body. Each box fits inside the other, creating a nesting effect much like Russian Matryoshka dolls. Traditionally, the innermost doll represents a baby turned from a single piece of wood, while the outermost is their elderly version. "Divorced, father of two…" (2022-2023) borrows this formal mannerism that signifies ageing to think about parallel themes also defined by inner/outer temporal spectrums: public/private; protection/detention; honesty/secrecy”.

photography and text: courtesy of What Pipeline