Casual Learning Environment

2018 · Found objects, office and school supplies, children's toys, and adhesive, dimensions variable

A series of sculptures incorporating found objects, office and school supplies, and children's toys. Each work reflects on the tension of working within institutions and systems—in particular, the public school system—while attempting to rebuild them from within. The series draws on my years as a public high school teacher in San Francisco, and was made after I left the classroom.

The series began during a 2018 residency at SÍM in Reykjavik, Iceland. In 2019, SFMOMA’s Open Space commissioned me to write an essay for their series Work on Work (Meditations on and confrontations with labor, ethics, and money in the culture industry).

My essay included images of the sculptures interspersed with text reflecting upon my time as a teacher. From “The Practice of Freedom”:

Systems just aren’t made of bricks they’re mostly made of people
—Crass

Judicial, linguistic, medical, educational, ecological, economic, geographic, technological, temporal. How can we make the covert, socially-constructed nature of these systems visible, so that we can alter, re-make, or destroy them for greater individual and collective autonomy?

I came to see education as a means of transforming systems like white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism — and that the way to do this is by transforming the system of education itself. The factory model of American public education, with its focus on standardized testing, and class sizes too large to permit individualized learning, epitomizes Freire’s notion of conformity. Schooling becomes a means to bolster capitalism, through curricular control by the textbook industry and career skills programs supported by corporations attempting to decrease labor costs. Not to mention the history of racist curriculum and practices by the state, school, and district administrators, as well as individual teachers. Underlying all of this is the systematic defunding of public schools in favor of privately managed (and notoriously anti-union) charters. As many teachers assert, the system isn’t actually broken: it’s working exactly as it was intended.

Casual Learning Environment No. 8, 2018
paper clips, metal and plastic rings, metal spring, plastic chain, push pin, 12" x 22" x 1.75"

Casual Learning Environment No. 12, 2018
coated wire, thread, wooden blocks and beads, thread, pencil grip, 6” diameter

Casual Learning Environment No. 10, 2018
wooden blocks, rope, push pin, clips, metal rings, wire, wooden bead, 5" x 4" x 2"

Casual Learning Environment No. 11, 2018
wood blocks and toys, clip, metal rings, thumb tack, paper clip, 5.75" x 6" x 2.5"

Casual Learning Environment No. 9, 2018
wooden block, plastic toy, rope, paperclip, push pin, 5" x 4" x 2"

Casual Learning Environment No. 7, 2018
paper clips, clothesline, metal clips and rings, corner brackets, dowel rod, chain, rope, wooden bead, 18" x 3" x 1"

Casual Learning Environment No. 1, 2018
rope, clips, wooden block, push pin, paper clip, miscellaneous plastic objects, dimensions variable

Casual Learning Environment No. 16, 2018
rope, clips, metal rings and tube, push pins, paper clips, chain, wooden bead, plastic toy, dimensions variable

Casual Learning Environment No. 4, 2018
thread, wire, wooden blocks and beads, plastic toys, push pins, paper clip, dimensions variable

Casual Learning Environment No. 2, 2018
chain, metal hardware, thread, wire, wooden blocks and beads, rope, wooden dowel, push pin, plastic toys, dimensions variable

Casual Learning Environment No. 6, 2018
Wooden and plastic toys, push pin, paper clip, fake gold, dimensions variable

Casual Learning Environment No. 17, 2019
wooden block, plastic toy, rope, push pin, 5" x 4" x 2"

Casual Learning Environment exhibition at In My Area, 2019. Flyer by Walter Logue.