Artist's
Statement
Blood, scars, voice, breath, transparency and light: I make artwork that makes the life I want. Rather than engaging in an isolated process, I am connected with the people around me. For The Scar Project, I interviewed a hundred women about their physical scars, then represented their experiences through sculpture, audio and projection works. Even when I am not directly bearing witness to people¹s stories, I create the conditions for transformative experience. For example, the Breathing Drawings are slowly morphing images that inspire poetic awareness of our own mysterious depths. More recently, I have been making sculpture and installation by pouring wet salt again and again as I enact a healing ritual.
Emptiness & Its Implications is an abstracted drawing installation of the circulatory system, including hearts, veins and arteries. The drawing is rendered using thousands of painstakingly cut holes, allowing for light to shine through the black paper. Each hole is then backed with a chandelier crystal, producing a glimmering effect that causes the artwork to refract, flicker and shift as viewers move in proximity to it. At once aesthetically dense and conceptually layered, the resulting delicate, celestial image maps a complex system of connections; and it points to the simultaneous fragility and strength of the human body and psyche.
Transformations:
figures filling with red, emptying of blue, slowly being infused with
light, becoming transparent; glasses filling and emptying; a delicately
rendered ribcage expanding and contracting. The images melt at the pace
of heartbeat or breath.
Though I have
utilized the techniques of animation, the breathing drawings function
more like paintings. The Breathing Drawings have no demanding narratives,
but instead depict slow, deliberate actions and are objects of gentle
contemplation and quiet poetic resonance.
Trauma, birth,
family, mortality, sex, vulnerability, viscosity, disease: I set out to
explore the powerful cultural meanings of blood following the events of
September 11, 2001, when everyone I know rushed to donate blood. I often
start with gathering stories in order to gain insight about a topic that
interests me. In this case, I held a series of dinner parties where I
asked guests to speak about their experiences with blood. I allowed the
stories to guide me to the artworks. First, I created a complex sound,
sculpture and video installation, Reflections on Blood. Many glasses filled
with red wine were suspended from the ceiling of a small gallery, and
lit with powerful lights. The room glowed red, the smell of hot wine filled
the space, and the air was saturated with the audio of the blood narratives.
When a viewer passed close to one of the glasses, it activated one of
the narratives, so there were infinite possible combinations of stories.
In subsequent works, I addressed different aspects of blood through video,
video performance, sculpture, sound and drawing.
Craters, nicks,
clefts, fissures, railroad tracks, spots-that-don't-tan, and raised purple
tissue. I asked 100 women to tell me about their physical scars: when,
where, and how they got them. The interviews are the basis of this audio
and mixed media work. The Scar Project visual work consists of layered
planes of plexiglass with sculptural, drawn, and textual elements. Headphones
playing the interview of the woman depicted accompany most pieces. There
is also a textured sound piece played on speakers in the exhibition space
that utilizes all of the interviews.
My primary
objective is to explore the way in which personal history manifests physically-how
our lives become inscribed on our bodies. As the stories unfolded, I realized
I had radically underestimated the depth and complexity of this subject.
With laughter, tears, and the tools of storytelling each woman wove a
life-story, painting a biographical picture and unveiling aspects of her
identity. The Scar Project sings the stories and celebrates the lives
of these extraordinary women.
To
create the Salt Prayer Wall, I cut niches in a wall, then dripped wet salt onto it over the course of two months. During the entire process, I was...well...praying. For everyone I know. Or maybe well-wishing is more apt. Something like: "May Mama be happy, may she be peaceful. May Devon be happy, may he have success." Again and again and again. I used over 400 pounds of salt to make the installation.
Salt appeals to me because it is bodily, it reminds me of the vast ocean, it has healing properties, and because it is composed of crystals-and literally holds light.
Light Offerings
The Light Offerings started when I was working in a studio with an entire glass wall facing directly onto the track of the J subway train in Brooklyn, New York. They are contemplative, beautiful images that inspire train riders to pause and reflect. I create the images by cutting many tiny holes into black paper, then light it strongly from behind. Because there is a chandelier crystal behind each of the cut paper holes, the images shimmer, glint and refract, especially as you move in proximity to them. I have expanded this project into other public arenas, including a large multi-site installation in cooperation with Barbara Gillman Gallery called Ofertas de Luz Para Miami (Light Offerings for Miami).
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