“Smokestacks” is a miniature wooden building that rests on a 6”x8” base of 1” thick black walnut. The building is built out of a mix of red oak and black walnut. The red oak part of the building is inlaid with bits of walnut that mimic a door and windows. Above the red oak block is a piece of gently sloping walnut that mimics a roof, as well as a square rod of red oak and a square rod of black walnut that mimic smokestacks. Both smokestacks have a hole that goes through to the base of the red oak piece where there is a larger cavity.

The building detaches from the base so that one can place and light a cone of incense in the cavity in the building. After one replaces the building, the incense smoke from the lit cone travels up the smokestacks and streams through the top. The smoke emanating from the building completes the miniature—not only does it look like a small factory, but the smokestacks function as they would on their larger counterparts. I use the natural grain of the wood to evoke building materials—the end grain on the red oak, in particular, imitates brickwork.

All of the wood used in this piece is sourced from Haverford College, where I am a student. Haverford is an arboretum and often mills and saves fine wood from fallen trees. Haverford gives me the wood in giant slabs, which I must then joint and plane to get workable pieces of wood.

With “Smokestacks,” I seek to blur the line between decorative and functional art. At first glance, this piece looks inert and purely decorative. Indeed, decoration is one of the main purposes of “Smokestacks”—I wanted to make a piece of art that could exist purely as a sculpture. Upon discovering that it is also an incense burner, one sees that function is also at the heart of this piece. While making this piece, I was interested in the thought that function and decoration do not need to exist separately—instead they can work hand in hand to coalesce into a piece of art that is at once beautiful and useful. I seek to show that in art and design, I do not have to sacrifice beauty to achieve functionality, nor must I sacrifice functionality to achieve beauty.