Rocket with Hoopskirt, 2019
16'x5'x5', Found objects, steel, screenprinted textile installation​

Through collaboration with my grandfather and space travel engineer, Don Payne, the Rocket with Hoopskirt Installation represents the the culmination of my graduate work regarding cultural impacts on the construction of identities in relation to mechanical objects. The “Command Center” installation acts as the work’s direct extension, continuing the discourse it generates from across the country, addressing the role that Florida has played in the history of rocketry and the impact the project of space travel has made on the state’s cultural, political, economic, and physical landscape.

The central piece in my contribution to the May 2019 MFA Exhibition at SFAI's Fort Mason campus and a pivotal figure within my ongoing thesis research entitled Gendered Machines, this object offers alien modes of gender representation, which disrupt expected relationships between humans and mechanical beings.  The rocket armature stands 16’ tall and is 5’ in diameter at the widest point, and is made from welded steel rod which detach and reassemble. The piece's title, “Rocket with Hoopskirt,” references its namesake, an early engine test, featuring structural hoops, built in 1928 by rocketry pioneer Robert H. Goddard. Unlike the original on which it is based, my rocket wears a 12’ long skirt made from a sheer, printed patterned fabric sewn to fit the structure like a body in a crinoline.