Polyphobia
Polyphobia
Polyphobia explores the raw and visceral experience of confronting one’s deepest fears. Each small sculpture in the series represents a specific phobia—like arachnophobia or ophidiophobia—designed to visually trigger the viewer's anxieties with familiar shapes, such as spiders or snakes. But upon closer inspection, the unsettling twist emerges: these sculptures are made entirely from my own collected fingernails.
Since 2005, I’ve been gathering my nails, a personal act of preservation that many find deeply unsettling. This medium serves to both disturb and distract the onlooker. For a fleeting moment, their focus shifts from the fear they’ve just confronted to a visceral reaction to the material itself—nails, which evoke a unique kind of disgust. This shift in perspective is what I aim to evoke: a redirection of fear, presenting the grotesque in an unexpected form.
Yes, I have a jar of nails at home. And yes, my husband is less than thrilled about it.
