METAMORPHIC
Boston, MA
AUGUST 7-11, 2020
When I make my work I am always thinking of how the viewer will physically interact with it. I think about how it will feel to walk up to an object and share the same space with it, two physical beings connecting; you layering your feelings and ideas over mine. I think about peripersonal space, the region of space directly around our bodies, where that space is centered in relation to our hands, head or trunk, and how you will perceive what you are seeing and what you feel with your body. I hope my viewer will get a sense of the tactile experience and meditative mental space I have when I am making my work. Shelter In Place is obviously a different experience! I have thought of connecting with you, my viewer, through your mind's eye and imagined physical experience.
Recently, especially with the advent of Covid, I have returned to thoughts of the scale of our perceived human existence versus the scale and power of the natural world. I have thought of how in this period of uncertainty I am so glad to be made of stardust*. I am glad to have certainty of our link to the universe, a bigger picture where we are so tiny, yet even our breath is powerful. I like to imagine that when you see the Blackhole and Mind’s Eye spinning on your tiny Instagram video of this tiny show, you will witness the power of Eben Haines’s breath gently moving my work and connecting with you.
*We are all made of stardust. We are as old as the stars. 99% of the mass of the human body is made up of six elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. Under different heat and pressure, we could have been rocks instead of people.
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List of pieces, all 2020:
Body of Water, gold leaf and acrylic on aluminum, 6.5 x 9”
Metamorphic, gold leaf and acrylic on aluminum, 6 x 8.25”
Black Hole, bone, coal slag, acrylic, varnish, 2 x 2.5 x 3”
Mind’s Eye, paper, coal slag, acrylic, mylar, 2.75 x 1.5 x 2”
Celestial Body in Self Reflection, sticks from my walk, coal slag, carbon, dryer lint, plaster, gold leaf, mylar, 12 x 7 x 7”
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A pair of poems relating especially to Metamorphic:
Twenty four years ago I wrote about feeling uncertain, about feeling self doubt and the depth of that despair when you are thinking of yourself as an individual.
I see myself walking in an open field
I think’ “I am beautiful, I am whole.”
My image come closer and closer to me
And finally
I am within
My body
I can see nothing, I can see nothing at all
I am blackness inside
I am darkness and unknowing
My bones are uncertain
My body keeps walking and my mind stands still
Just watching
I pass myself by
The other day I passed a rock on the beach and saw myself there:
I am walking by the ocean
I see myself in the form of a stone
I think
I am solid and all knowing
I am the universe inside
I am darkness and all light
The space between my breaths is infinite
I know nothing and everything at once
I stand upon my own back and rise up grounded
I look toward the horizon
See the other side of my thoughts
Reflected back at me