a designer
a filmmaker
a wonderer“our resident art historian”
based in Los Angeles and Oakland, California.
[about]
He is currently studying at
UCLA
pursuing a B.A. in Design | Media Arts & Art History and typed this text in the third person. This site is constantly under construction.
© 2025 Calvin McClure - All Rights Reserved
EVE GRILLZ PART ONESPRING 2024
Plaster, Aluminum Foil,
PVA-Based Glue, Hot Glue, Dental Floss
Given a 3D-printed copy of my teeth that was used to fit a specialized orthodontic appliance, I possessed
a symbol of the discomfort and insecurity my newly started orthodontic care had brought me.
Wanting to repossess this experience's connotations, morphing it from an embarrassing and frustrating
matter to something I could call my own, I covered my plaster tooth replica in tinfoil and photographed it
—implementing these faux grillz into my work and
applying a historic lens to them.
EVE GRILLZ PART TWO
SPRING 2024
As I looked into the history of grillz, I studied their beginnings in Black and Latin communities with the initial usage of gold crowns as the cheapest way to repair a broken or rotting tooth. We know today, however,
that shiny gilded teeth have since become a symbol of power and cultural pride. It was a reclaim of power
that, in a faint parallel, mirrored the melodrama of what I had done with tin foil and a 3D print of my mouthsuffering
converted into positive expression.
Girl with a Pearl Earring, Johannes Vermeer (c. 1665), oil on canvas.Woman with a Parrot, Gustave Courbet (1866), oil on canvas
Adopting the tagline ‘Claim Yours’, I fitted
various photographed individuals with the
Eve grillz, each symbolizing a subversion or
critique of various hegemonies. Whether it
be a Black woman, the subject of the male
gaze, a pro-colonial orientalist painting, or
an intersection of multiple, the goal was to
offer a visual platform to each figure as I
placed these designs on various billboards
and structures across the world.