2021
Wounds are to fissures, an invitation for a joining
Wounds are to fissures, an invitation for a joining (2021). Stained glass, Himalayan salt, resin & soldered copper ; Two pieces ; Each 46 x 18 x 34”
Wounds are to fissures, an invitation for a joining (2021) mark the first components of a currently in-progress & large-scale installation. The forthcoming multimedia installation reimagines illness, health, healing & being through a coetaneous collapsing and telescoping of bodily time/scales. While the left entry portal is based on a geological fissure of pink sandstone, the portal on the right images a dermal wound. Micro and macro are equalized in space.
Bloom
Bloom (2021) ; Multimedia living pond installation: stained glass, filamentous algae, copper, wood, vinyl, paint, silicone, UV lights, bubbler & water ; 80 x 36 x 46 1/2”
Images courtesy of Alison Postma & The Plumb.
Molecular becomings in descending order:
the traveller ; erotic compass ; the communicant ; the rhizomorph ; the weaver ; a passageway ; the animist ; the feeler.
volvox ferrisii ; neuroimmune mastocyte ; scenedesmus ; breast tissue ; filamentous chlorophyta ; fallopian tube ; ovary ; viscera.
Bloom is a site-specific, living pond installation in collaboration with a community of molecular bodies. Inorganic animacies, extra-human subjectivities, and encounters with entropy; Bloom explores the erotic potential of becoming molecular. Stained glass lenses depicting algal and human cellular structures emerge from within a liquid culture of filamentous algae. The living (and dying) installation takes on a discordant tone to the boom and bust of markets and bodies, positioning the processes of decay, movement, flux, and renewal as foundational to illness mediation and cultural remediation. The artist extends deep gratitude and admiration for her algal advisor and collaborator, Sarah Choukah, Ph.D. in communications and faculty at L'Université de l'Ontario français.
Bloom : Installation Artifacts
Bloom : Installation Artifacts (2021). Left to right : the communicant (scenedesmus) ; the rhizomorph (breast tissue) ; the animist (ovary) ; the weaver (filamentous chlorophyta) ; & a passageway (fallopian tube). Images courtesy of Alison Postma & The Plumb.
A quilt to hold that barrier between worlds
A quilt to hold the barrier between worlds (2021). Mixed media installation ; Stained glass, solder, copper, chain, resin with herbal inclusions, dried herbs and wildflowers, acrylic & concave acrylic mirror, steel pipes & light ; Dimensions variable
Combining stained glass, silver chain, resin, dried herbs, and wildflowers, A quilt to hold the barrier between worlds (2021) spatializes grief for quiet contemplation. Following timescales of mourning and healing, the multimedia installation is an ongoing collaboration with Hudspith’s departed grandmother, Grace. Using traditional blocks and those of her grandmother’s design, stained glass is a material translation of Grace’s way of seeing / being. Here, stained glass is neither pictorial nor oratory. Rather, its aura is one of reflection, ritual, boundary bending, and re/connection. Quilt is both a barrier and a lens through which to channel loss and honour the dead, a window in/unto spaces beyond. Transparent and opaque, opalescent and iridescent, mirrored and shadow-casting; the glass quilt is sentinel and healer in visitation.
As time passes and grief transitions to memorial, the quilted boundary seems to disintegrate. Fallen pieces dangle from delicate silver chains. Castings with floral inclusions or sprigs of dried herbs act as healing offerings to replace areas of missing glass. Ritual space for its maintenance unfolds below: a parabolic mirror doubles as herbalist vessel and refractive lens that bends the quilt-space above while broken and not-yet-attached pieces are strewn about between medicinal bundles.
Harness for Self-Reflection
Harness for Self-Reflection (2021). Inkjet prints on habotai silk, copper, cotton cord & acrylic mirror. 116 x 116 x 85”
Documenting a private ritual of self-examination where self-bondage is a means of auto-interview, the eight silken image-texts of Harness for Self-Reflection (2021) encircle a central viewing harness. Performance images are overlaid with poetic texts that traverse metaphor, idiom, diary remembrance and a medical examination narrated. Latent illness, elusive agency, fugitive knowledge; raw-edged silks are sensitive to voyeuristic presences where slight movements cause the material to flow and obfuscate. Punctured momentarily when performer and viewer catch each other’s gaze through the viewing apparatus, the installation forms a volatile loop of looking. A cyclical structure, cotton loops, and cursive script; Harness is a snare and lens through which to consider the trap of visibility.