Relational Strata is a large-scale sculptural installation that translates lived relational experience into physical form. Drawing from extensive personal writing, moments across familial, platonic, and romantic relationships were identified, categorized, and mapped according to emotional direction, duration, and impact.
These data points became the foundation for a layered topographical language, transforming subjective experience into measurable structure.
Each of the three faces represents a distinct relationship type, with horizontal movement marking time, vertical movement reflecting emotional change, and layered depth indicating significance. At the center of the sculpture, the original writing remains physically present yet largely inaccessible, visible only in fragmented passages through the surrounding structure.
What first appears as texture gradually reveals itself as language, preserving the personal experiences that informed the work while resisting complete interpretation. Relational Strata considers how relationships accumulate rather than replace one another, suggesting that emotional history exists as a landscape shaped by countless overlapping moments rather than isolated events.
Following its gallery exhibition, Relational Strata was reinstalled along the Mississippi River in Algiers Point, where the artist has lived for nearly two decades.
The central column was intentionally removed, allowing the work to shift away from its internal narrative and toward associations with the surrounding landscape.
Left in place as a temporary installation, the sculpture remained until it was ultimately removed by the city.
