Multi-part 3D Print, 65″h x 16.7″w x 16.7″d
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Humans are 99.9% genetically identical, sharing the same DNA. It is this .1% that makes each of us have our unique physical traits.
“In minor ways we differ, in major we’re the same.”
“We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.”
These are two lines from Maya Angelou’s poem ‘Human Family’.
It is these simple words that are the inspiration for a family I’ve been creating I call MODEL CITIZENS. They were born in 2015, with the ascendance of Donald Trump. I felt a disturbance in the fabric of society brewing; threads of progress towards a more perfect union unraveling.
MODEL CITIZENS are my antidote to this disturbance that inhabits my psyche with the rise of hate of the other promulgated by and acted upon by the highest levels of our government, a world where only white Christians are at the top of the heap. And at the governments side stands the excesses of capitalism and corporations that are willing partners. It’s not hyperbolic to see the similarities to the rise of Nazi fascism. Fascism relies on authoritarianism, the play that is happening right before our eyes in our time.
MODEL CITIZENS represent the ideals of an upgrade in humanity, where to be a good citizen occupies the highest of ideals, where we teach our children civics, which instead of everything being about “me”, they learn that alongside individualism, is a responsibility to the other, caring for one another, respecting our differences, contributing to the communities we live in, engaging in democracy, being good Samaritans, caring for the environment so that future generations may have a chance of having a livable planet. Have I forgotten something? Perhaps you can finish this list.
Each MODEL CITIZEN is a unique persona but within that uniqueness is a common structure. It’s the differences that make us beautiful. Think of a world without the beautiful spectrum of humanity, a world with a single language, a single culture, a single art form, a single religion, a single skin tone. It’s a dystopian thought experiment.
At first MODEL CITIZENS were two dimensional, inhabiting artworks created in photoshop. It was not until I transformed them into three dimensions that they became full-fledged personas. In 2015, I used Think[box] at Case Western Reserve University to 3d print my first two. But I didn’t go further because traveling and being there for extended periods of time made it inaccessible to me. It would not be until I began reconnecting with my roots as an architect with my Art-itectures a couple of years ago that I would revisit them, this time with new programs, MOI and Blender. With their architectonic forms, it occurred to me that they were Art-itectures too. And then, in the fall of 2025, with the acquisition of a 3d printer, like a phoenix rising from the ashes they were reborn into physical sculptures to be experienced as I intended them, like an architects models of buildings.
MODEL CITIZENS are fun. They are childlike. They are joyful. They are happy. They march to the drum of a better humanity.
