CHRIS BETTENCOURT'S Universal Deluxe

I make work about the ordinary objects, places, and people that hold the world together. I bear witness to how they fall apart, and how we find a way forward anyway. My practice spans relief printmaking, pyrography, photography, and assemblage. I'm drawn to tools, machines, and overlooked spaces: the things that worked hard without recognition, the places that functioned and then didn't, the people who kept going regardless. In Convenient, three vintage domestic machines, a sewing machine, a stand mixer, and a massage instrument, are elevated through pyrography and paint on wood panel. Each one promised women something. Each one delivered, and demanded more in return. I honor resilience at every stage: function, collapse, mourning, struggle, and the new form that emerges after. That cycle is everywhere if you're willing to look.

This Universal sewing machine promised to lighten her load. It did. Then more was asked of her. Images seared into wood panel, painted in watercolor and acrylic.