Having worked for years as a costumer for the Kansas City Renaissance Festival (1993-2003), I wanted to explore the materiality of inner tube rubber as a wearable object. When first produced, the rubber is molded into a toroid shape (shout out to Gaussian Curvatures) that refuses to lay flat when cut apart. I was really excited about the new forms that developed from me fighting against the internal structure and tension of the rubber as I applied it to my body. The images are another experiment in the politics of exhibiting/displaying artwork. I set up a photoshoot next to another dumpster in the Sculpture Dept at Kansas City Art Institute. My surrogate for a Grecian column or antique pedestal typical of portrait sitting for studio photography from the late 1800’s was a stack of used tires lying in wait.

— Andy T