Stemco Hubodometer

Medium: Stemco Hubodometer, Plaster, Chicken Wire, Nylon Tights, Gesso, Pastel, Charcoal, Bread Board.

Stemco Hubodometer utilizes a found mechanical hubo or hubodometer, a device used to measure the distance a vehicle has travelled by counting axle revolutions and displaying them on a counter.

It shows a twin headed skeletal torso whose pale body appears to have a mummified appearance. A hint of red, suggestive of seeping wounds underneath the bandages adds to the abjection of the work.

The uncanniness of this piece stems from the idea of the abnormality of conjoined twins whose shrunken heads are trapped painfully within the metal device of the hubo. At the same time the heads are pressed together to create a feeling of being trapped in an uncomfortable forced intimacy.

The work is part of a large body of work made between 2021 and 2023 which aimed to create an uncanny anxiety by juxtaposing mundane, mechanical objects within the context of the human body.