Andrea Keys

The sculptures that I make are driven by a desire to investigate how an individuals personal history affects their identity, behaviors, and actions. I am especially interested in intergenerational trauma and how a persons past, particularly a past that has been interrupted by a traumatic event such as war, can influence patterned behaviors that are passed through the family. I focus on characters that take their cues from Western ideals of a collective identity. I am utilizing images, patterns and symbols found in specific notions of Western identity and psychology to create my characters, yet I am displaying them in environments that are unfamiliar. The element of fantasy that is thus created shows how the past and the present, dream and reality, conscious and unconscious, familiar and unfamiliar can exist together in an environment that is uncanny, much like the way subconscious memories of a traumatic event can be very much alive in our conscious actions.I am interested in questioning the archetypes role and how the collective identity can be harmful to the family when these roles cease to resonate. What happens when an individuals psyche is altered by a traumatic event and ones ability to fulfill their implied role slowly dis...

Maryland Institute College of Art, BFA 2002
Ohio University, athens, US, MFA 2009