2023
The infinitesimal stirs me as the cosmological
Installation view of The infinitesimal stirs me as the cosmological (2023) within “Thump, Whoosh, Rumble” at The Miller ICA, Pittsburgh (USA) in 2023. Multimedia installation including works: Overture, Coda (Braid); Body (Torus); and Orbs. 441 x 264 x 43”
Overture, Coda (Braid) (2023). Braid of the artist’s hair, cut following recovery from her first major autoimmune flare, medicinal salt brine (magnesium sulfate in solution), concave mirror, steel. 21 ¼ x 21 ½ x 43”
Orbs (2021–23). Photographic documents taken by the artist during moments of chronic illness of her body and surroundings printed on silk; crystallizations of medicinal and toxic salts (including magnesium sulfate, sodium chloride, potassium sulfate, and copper sulfate); medicinal herbs and flora (including thistle, chicory root, burdock, evening primrose, nettle, and nigella); medical flotsam, found objects; pigment derived from organic matter (including aloe vera and avocado); synthetic pigment; UV-degrading resin; steel; underlighting. Series of 20; Dimensions variable
The infinitesimal stirs me as the cosmological brings macro and micro time/scales into relation with one another. The darkened installation space is an invitation for visitors to practice the tenets of feeling with–, to turn inwards for encounters with their molecular selves, towards the knowledges and perplexities within. Small, cell-like sculptures called Orbs are perched atop varied steel structures arranged to choreograph slow, wandering, and meditative movements. Each holds within it a silken photograph of the artist’s body taken during moments of illness and crystalized by salts to varying degrees of legibility. Others are seeded with medicinal herbs and extracts, small keepsakes, or medical flotsam. Salts within Orbs are on the move, slowly shifting, corroding, and cracking their resin encasement. Though not within our lifetimes, salts will transform metaphors back into materials, then perhaps, to something else unknown.
Body (Torus)–a large stained glass sculpture at the installation’s core–holds space as would a body as a centrifuge, and is witness to the installation around it. The final element Overture, Coda (Braid), acts as a touchstone upon entry and exit from the installation space. Here, a long braid of the artist’s hair is submerged in a medicinal salt brine inside a shallow vessel, slowly crystallizing throughout the exhibition.
Emanations
Individual works from this series from top to bottom and left to right: ovary (Emanation II); fissure (Emanation V); lymph (Emanation I); strata (Emanation VI); wound (Emanation IV); and breast (Emanation III). Dimensions variable. Installation view at NADA New York (2023) courtesy of Zalucky Contemporary.
Emanations is an ongoing series of stained glass image-portals that bring macro and micro scales into relation to one another, feeling around for kinship across bodily and geological matter formations. The two largest works, fissure (Emanation V) and wound (EmanationIV) image a geological fissure and a fissure in flesh conversely. Together, these form a center from which others emanate. Glassworks on the left look inwards towards the erotic knowledge-powers of the molecular body including breast, ovarian, and lymphatic tissue histologies, while those emanating toward the left telescope outwards towards mineral bodies of the macro terrain.