PAST / PRESENT / FUTURE

October 2022

Presented at SWEPT AWAY: A Love Letter to a Surrogate(s), curated by Warren Neidich and Christina Strassfield. This project, held on the beach of Easthampton, NY on four evenings in the Fall of 2022, was conceived to address issues of ecology and the environment. Artists on the East and West coasts were ‘paired’, sending each other ‘love letters’ (prompts) to ‘create a transcontinental heartbeat across America’.

Wall hanging 39” x 34” suspended from metal armature; 20 color images 4.5” x 5” affixed to 10 wooden crosses; water basin.

Hemp, cotton laundry cording, black theatrical cord, cotton string, vintage rusted chain, lead pyramid fishing weights, seaweed, sand dollars, oil stick, wire cord, straw rope, coffee-stained cord

This installation began with a ‘prompt’ from West Coast artist, Kearra Amaya Gopee.  Their short video spoke to me of a post-apocalyptic world and the concept of extinction.

I thought about extinct cultures and civilizations,  and specifically the Incas, who designed the ‘quipu’, an arrangement of knotted cords used to communicate information. The quipu became the motif for my installation, which is comprised of natural materials and found objects, most from the Long Island coastal environment.

As the climate crisis worsens, extinction has become a present reality. Images of endangered or extinct species were affixed to white crosses speaking to that reality.

Viewers were invited to take one of the images (printed on water soluble paper) and submerge it in a pool of seawater and in so doing, experience what the future may hold. The gradual disappearance of the paper was photographed, creating new ‘water collages’.