Summer Intern Spotlight: Ethan Wood

Project title: Making of Rick: An exploration of collective memory and the anatomy of storytelling

Over the past six weeks, I have birthed a creature of collective consciousness. Constructed entirely from the discarded remnants of the community, whether that be recycled cardboard from the MCLA box room, shredded paper pulp made from donated paper, and a tactile mixture of joint compound and school glue, this creation, called Rick, will die by the end of this residency. Rick is a fleshy, monster-like shelf that serves as a visceral monument to the past. He is a slow-growing organism, sculpted to be a growing monster whose very existence is derived from donated debris.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/aeb1f8_0fa257e2d41b486d9504f735a8945fa6/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Rick exists as a living, interactive body for my handmade books. Inside his skinless body, he holds stories that are not his own but the communities. The community is invited to engage with this monster, to pull one of the handmade books and fill in a page based on the prompts above the books. He is a guardian of these stories, holding them and waiting for more narratives that justifies his strange and freakish temporary life.

However, Rick’s is a creature defined by the weight of the stories he holds. When the residency concludes and the final book is withdrawn from his skin, Rick will lose his tether to this world. Having fulfilled his purpose, he will face a brutal, inevitable end. But even in death, the community remains involved; after he is murdered, we will honor the memories he protected with a formal funeral and celebrate the ephemeral connection between the sculptor, the monster, and the story.