Are Women People?

Within the context of the US public education system, students are taught that abstinence is the best way to prevent pregnancy, rather than teaching young women how their bodies function. Conversely, there is a wealth of information educating adult women for the purposes of achieving pregnancy. While this basic understanding of the female reproductive system can be used to get pregnant, it can also be used to prevent pregnancy with a high degree of accuracy. The overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 further limited access to reproductive care for women, but the limitations on access for marginalized communities existed prior to this monumental attack on women’s rights. This is not merely a conversation about abortion, but rather a dialog about control.

My installation features natural steel panels with lace-lined, pig intestine window panes. Inside the cell is an abstracted woman’s body created with a lamb’s skin, wooden hands, and a single channel video looping on a doily covered iPad.

The work was exhibited in Woe v Rade a collaborative group show produced by BRDG Project, curated by Jasmine Abena Colgan, and hosted at Pirate Gallery in Denver, Colorado.

“Woe v Rade is the response and call to action by Denver artists and activists and others who are moved by the recent decisions made by mostly (white) men about female reproductive rights. The Supreme Court of the United States’ (SCOTUS) overturned Roe vs Wade and made alarming decisions on other issues—separation of church and state, concealed gun ownership, EPA protections, and hints at overturning LGTBQ rights—which erode 14th amendment protections. The word Woe has many meanings—friend, great sorrow or distress, a decision that can cause big problems or troubles, extreme sadness or an expression of great sadness. Rade also has a variety of definitions— afraid, scared, terrified, fearful. These feelings are shared by many. These artists are sharing their voice through art—if SCOTUS continues to build these walls—they will put art up on them in protest.” —Jasmine Abena Colgan

 A Bed for Lying

The title of this piece is a playful homage to a performance by Robert Morris in 1961 entitled: Box for Standing where the artist stood silently in a box made to his dimensions. The bed is a self-portrait that I made to my dimensions with 1364 six-inch steel nails that equal roughly my body weight. Most recently the bed has been utilized for its  intended purpose in performance. Nail beds are connected to performance, fetishization, magic, and physics. Many people who perform on nail beds sand off the burs of the nails. However, it was imperative to leave them in place because I wanted to maintain the authenticity of the nail, but also because the idea I was processing had to do with emotional pain, making physical pain a necessary function of the work. I practiced getting on and off the bed and controlling my breathing. In conversation with artist Oliver Herring, he suggested that I lay naked in the bed. I opted for a thin dress that offered the least protection for my skin without the discomfort of filming myself nude. My body responded to the nails in the same way as jumping into ice water and the sensation of a cold shock response, which manifests as an involuntary gasping for air.

Inculation

Inculcation represents a construction of a world saturated with images—advertisements for cleaning products, soap, and other tools of domesticity—visual media that blends into the blur of the everyday messages that communicate the ideals of the dominant class. This exhibition explores experimental filmmaking practices that investigate the domestic space, evolving expectations of those who identify as women, and the ways that ideologies are inculcated early in our lives.

In June of 2022, I had a solo exhibition at the Art Gym. The exhibition explored the interaction of visitors through interactive works and alternative ways of exhibiting moving image. A Bed for Lying, and the first iteration of its accompanying film Conformity, were included.

The Rite of Spring…Break

“The Rite of Spring…Break is a group exhibition at the historic Evans School that combines site-specific installations with emergent digital practices—including interactive video projections and projection mapping, audio interventions, and augmented reality.

The exhibition’s title is a reference to Stravinsky’s famous ballet, The Rite of Spring, which ushered in a new era of modernism when it debuted in Paris in 1913. Considered sacrilege at the time, the ballet was so avant-garde that it incited a literal riot and forty people were arrested on opening night. The infamous score is an early example of dissonance and is considered by many iconic musicians and scholars as “the most important piece of music of the 20th century.” The premise for the ballet was a pagan ritual in which “a sacrificial virgin dances herself to death.” 

Spring Break — i.e. the week every March when university students typically engage in epic debauchery — is also a pagan-like ritual, updated for the 21st century, while still worshipping the gods of excess, intoxication, and sexuality. Since the exhibition venue itself was originally a school, the theme of spring break is also a nod to the historical building itself. Spring is also the season, of course, of rebirth. The Rite of Spring…Break will interweave these themes in a weekend-long celebration that pays homage to — as Stravinsky said — ‘the mystery and the great surge of the creative power of spring.’” —Emilie Trice

In March of 2022, A Bed for Lying, and the first iteration of its accompanying film Conformity, were included in a group exhibition at the Evans School, curated by Emilie Trice.

Night Lights Denver Commissions (2020/2021)

Weather the Storm is a 2D animation created from photographed cut paper, ink drawings, and rotoscope animation. It explores a collection of items produced during the isolation period of the pandemic. Carnivorous Plants is a 2D mixed-media animated collage consisting of fabric, drawings, and banana runts candy featured as part of a group exhibition by the Denver Collage Club.