Aaliyah Ahmad

How do repeated representations of language change our understanding and alter our emotional ties to it?

We describe how we feel with many words, but there are times where we don’t need a word to convey its meaning. I was inspired by the movement in a photo of a stairwell by Louis Henry Sullivan for the structures of one piece. I cut stair-like shapes from floral foam and imprinted a design to imitate the railing. Additionally, I experimented with Photoshop to add environment/context, and by using nontraditional materials: floral foam, found objects, cd shards. I was working with figures at first, but then with letters to convey my perception of certain words. This practice and experimentation connects to the question overall because when looking at the sculptures, the material often is an indicator of my personal definition of the word.