"Mnemonic Objects" are physical items used to trigger memories or aid in recalling information. I've been making versions of this porcupine skull in various scales and materials as a way of recalling a dream. This latest version is sculpted hollow so that the interiors contain impressions of fossils and flammable gas pipe fittings. In my dream, I remember a scene where thousands of beetles morphed into porcupines on top of a mesa while the sun was rising. At first I tried to read symbolism into this scene - beetles = death and transformation, porcupines - a guarded curiosity. Now I just enjoy making different versions of the skull and treating it like an excavation site, carving new iterations of the dream into the present with each sculpture. I replaced the natural teeth of the porcupine with enlarged replicas of my own back three molars so that this is a hybridization of me with the animal. Because I grind my teeth when I sleep, I was thinking that teeth are the fossil records of our dreams. For the exhibition Memory In Retrograde, I included two slightly different versions side by side because many of the works in this exhibition are about looping and repetitive behaviors common to people with memory loss. I see the sculptures sort of like fragmented phrases that are looping but mutating with each repetition. That's how my mother treated language in her final years battling Alzheimer's disease and I was always surprised at how unpredictable and creative it was.
Memory in Retrograde is a solo exhibition by Jonathan Durham that explores the relationship between cognitive decline and environmental stress. Using sculpture, video, and sound, Durham draws from his family’s experience with Alzheimer’s disease to reflect on how outside forces – like pollution, synthetic materials, and systems of extraction – can mirror and influence the breakdown of memory. Durham structures the exhibition around four behavioral traits frequently observed in Alzheimer’s patients: Looping, Shadowing, Sundowning, and Pocketing. These behaviors—each witnessed in his mother’s final years—serve as sculptural and conceptual modifiers, shaping how materials and form are repeated, fragmented, and transformed over time.
solo exhibition: TAF Flagship Tulsa, OK
Foreground: Just Make Cookies, 2021 tractor trailer 5th wheel, custom propane burner, cookie dough, artificial sweeteners
link for Just Make Cookies performance
Video: Bama Boy, 2022 color video and digital animations 8min 31sec
link for Bama Boy video
This sculpture was inspired by activists in Tulsa, OK who
were told by a local petrochemical representative to “just bake cookies” to hide the smell of noxious gases the factory was illegally venting into
their neighborhood.
performance actions included baking a chocolate chip cookie on a tractor trailer 5th wheel coupler, dancing with police batons and creating an incense sculpture infused with used motor oil inside scent diffusers and soaked into blank incense sticks. video performance documentation
from left
Propane Amphora, 2023
aqua-resin
20 x 16 x 12 inches
On A Mesa, 2023
color video, 3D animations, AI generated text
13 min loop
Amyloid Dream, 2023
cast aluminum from 3D prints
37 x 28 x 14 inches
Mechanics of Flesh, 2023
aqua-resin
23 x 31 x 18 inches
performers: Jonathan Durham, Suzanne Kite, Robbie Wing, Zacry Spears
video link
performers: Jonathan Durham, Suzanne Kite, Robbie Wing, Zacry Spears
video link
In this work I sculpted features like a setting sun and spikes inspired by trilobite fossils directly onto a steel propane tank. Then I made rigid sectional casts from the tank and fused them together to form a broken relic. Aqua-resin is a plastic infused gypsum material that has the surface quality of sandstone in its unpainted state.
installation view *sounds of wolves howling and my mother (who has Alzheimer’s) whispering through an adaptable PVC system connecting the sculptures along the gallery wall. The audio leaks out of breaches in the pipes. video/audio link
installation view *sounds of wolves howling and my mother (who has Alzheimer’s) whispering through an adaptable PVC system connecting the sculptures along the gallery wall. The audio leaks out of breaches in the pipes. video/audio link