Still Life
Still Life
Still Life is a site-specific project utilizing sculpture, drawings, music and performance to explore themes of life, death and rebirth through the prism of San Diego’s native plants.
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Still Life is a collaboration with writer Mary Haidri and director Hannah Ryan as part of the Nettleworks collective.
Benito
An actor laid in a pile of red dirt, surrounded by prickly pear cactus. After the performance her body imprint remained in the dirt along with the handkerchief she rested her head on.
Performed by: Emelie Faith Thompson
Not An Exit Gallery, The Bread and Salt Factory, San Diego
Every Path
Every Path was a site-specific production about a woman’s journey through adulthood as she encountered multiple versions of herself, each version representing a different choice and reality. The audience was self-guided and journeyed through the piece exploring these themes through nature, sculpture, music, dance, and performance art.
Golem of Havana
The Golem of Havana was a critically acclaimed musical exploring the lives of a Jewish family in Cuba on the brink of a revolution. My contribution to the production was a series of shadow puppets made to resemble a comic book strip which was part of the opening act.
Isaiah 58:5
"You humble yourselves
by going through the motions of penance,
bowing your heads
like reeds bending in the wind.
You dress in burlap
and cover yourselves with ashes.
Is this what you call fasting?
Do you really think this will please the Lord?"
- Isaiah 58:5
Euclid/16th Pedestrian Tunnel
Euclid/16th Street Pedestrian Tunnel Permanent Public Art Piece
I was selected from a group of artists to design the underpass walls for a new pedestrian tunnel near the University of Colorado at Boulder campus. The pedestrian tunnel connects on street parking and fraternities to the University Memorial Center on campus. It also is a passageway for the bus stop with the highest traffic in Boulder. The tunnel walls are each eight foot in height and approximately one hundred feet long. Large relief concrete tree roots reach down through layers of river rock, sandstone, and iridescent green tile evoking the imagery of the earth being split in two.
Peter the Rock
In this piece there was a fake rock suspended by a net dangling over a statue of Jesus. The net was connected by a rope to a crank. The viewer was given the option to move the crank, either upwards or downwards. There was also an audio component in which I recited the four versions of Peter's denial of Jesus backwards, word by word.
Biblical Women Embroideries
In studying the history of embroidery, I noticed three things that stood out to me.
1) In Western culture since the Middle Ages, embroidery has been seen as primarily a female activity.
2) Across history, these women have stitched many things, one of them being strong and empowered women found within Christian history.
3) These women's stories were recreated in the style and dress of the time period in which they were being embroidered.
So, I took it upon myself to recreate a few of the women and their stories into embroideries myself. I did my best to imagine what they would look like today.
(There were five of these. I chose my favorite two to share here)
A (R)etiological Study of Hagar and Sarah
This was a series of embroideries that I did that studied the relationship of the two biblical women, Hagar and Sarah. Hagar is considered the mother of modern Islam, while Sarah is connected to the Judeo-Christian. The pivotal moment of their relationship was the starting point of some of the largest religions in the world today. Both women had a unique and special relationship with God and I was trying to understand their relationship further.
There were eight embroideries in this series.
Trees
This installation consisted of a popsicle stick floor that viewers would walk across across to view the two pieces in the gallery. The sculptures are two trees, one tree reaching up towards the ceiling and covered with popsicle sticks in a twisting log cabin construction, the other tree was salvaged from a camp started by my Grandfather. The tree, along with the camp was burned in the Cedar Fire. The tree is suspended from the ceiling by tiny threads attached to each limb. The ceiling is covered with a thick canvas that has been rubbed and washed with dirt.
Fruit of the Spirit
In this piece I took the verse Galations 5:22-23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." and looked up each adjective in a thesaurus, and then cross-referenced those words with a concordance. I then cut out any verse that did not contain one of those words. Then I pinned the pages onto a wall.