Taking Up Space

This piece began with a material meant for holding things together.

Steel washers—objects designed to distribute weight and absorb pressure—form the skin of Taking Up Space: Presence Without Permission. Welded one by one, they reflect the accumulation of moments that shape a body: repetition, strain, resilience, and endurance.

The figure stands without arms or head, removing gesture and identity so the body itself becomes the statement. Its openness exposes both labor and vulnerability, allowing light to pass through what was once meant only to bear load.

This sculpture is a reclaiming of weight—not as something to reduce or hide, but as something earned. A reminder that presence does not need permission, justification, or apology. It simply exists.