Bondage

40"x24"x2"; laser cut and engraved plywood and white oak veneer with paint, and bondage rope; 2025

Bondage continues a series of laser-cut and marquetry works that use self-portraiture as both subject and structure. The image depicts a kneeling figure bound, blindfolded, and gagged, his body restrained while control is exerted through hair, rope, and posture. This central scene is tessellated into a patterned background, fragmenting the body into repetition and echo, while the physical frame mirrors the act depicted within. Black cord wraps the shadow-box frame, binding the object itself in a way that parallels the figure’s restraint and collapsing image and support into a single sculptural system. Hung to project outward at roughly a forty-five-degree angle, the work interrupts the viewer’s body, requiring a slight downward tilt of the neck to engage it. This enforced posture implicates the viewer in the dynamics of control, submission, and looking, transforming a two-dimensional image into an embodied encounter.