Scientiae Cedit Mare (The Sea Yields to Knowledge)
Operational Dress Uniform Coast Guard blouse, pages from marine navigation reference books, thread, wire
Scientiae Cedit Mare is the latin motto for the Coast Guard Academy, instructing prospective officers of the importance of knowledge and its relation to success. Years in military service include a deluge of knowledge retention. Pages and pages are memorized, referenced, carved into the landscape of what’s needed to achieve multiple qualifications. There were many references (such as Rules of the Road) I memorized nearly completely, others I only needed to know where to look. In this piece I explore the physicality of knowledge, binding and crumpling it up to fit into a body. A dress form takes shape, referencing the femininity I was trying to distance from my identity in order to better fit within a masculine environment. Standing nearly 7 ft tall, the piece points to lofty ideals and becoming a part of something bigger than oneself, aspects of the Coast Guard that appealed to me when I joined.
