As with Meret Oppenheim's Self-portrait, Skull and Ornament, N. Dash uses herself as sitter in a series of works that include an x-ray of her skull.  And as with the Surrealist's classic 1964 work, Dash adds ornamentation, in this case in the form of sculptures she creates by hand, which like Oppenheim's, are simple, striking, and "demand to be materialized."

For a number of years, the artist, who was born in Miami, had not realized the objects she had been making since childhood were artwork.  Small and seemingly insignificant, the sculptures are the product of a near performative process.  Working from small pieces of cotton she abrades by rolling between her thumb and fingers, the resulting sculptures—less than intentional and more the result of a process both contemplative and meditative—also serve as hieroglyphs.

The sculptures, vaguely figurative, represent a kind of language as well as Dash's aesthetic. She then photographs them, subverting the original objects further, and documenting them largely as specimen.  The final images, at times deeply serene, render something as simple as a piece of fabric as small as a quarter, significant.  "Part of my job," Dash contends, "is to make these things important."

N. Dash was born in 1980 and attended New York University where she earned a B.A. in Liberal Arts from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study.  Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows in galleries and museums throughout the U.S., and is represented in both public and private collections including the de Young Museum in San Francisco and the Craig Robbins Collection in Miami.  Dash lives and works in New Mexico.