Sunset, Spool of Thread…

I recently was invited to perform at an outdoor performance event by the New Media Collective, curated by Molly Youngblood, in a large, beautiful, tree-filled yard owned by a fraternity house near the University of Oklahoma’s campus. I was able to finally use an industrial sized spool of unbleached thread I’ve had for 2 years. It finally spoke to me! Here is an image of the two hour performance. Video to come…

 

preview of my summer in the Netherlands

Excited to be a part of PAE’s June production titled (NON)-LOCATIONS. Seven performance artists from the Netherlands, the UK, the US will perform their work in various places around the city of Enschede.

I’ll be revisiting a study I conducted in 2011 at FARMWORK, a holistic living/art retreat on rural land outside of Madison, WI at the home of visual artist Doug Rosenberg and choreographer Li-Chiao Ping, both professors at the University of Wisconsin.

I fell in love with a particular tree and spent hours climbing, resting on, and hanging from branches, searching for places and ways to situate my body in order to let my full body weight rest on the tree and not have to hold on to anything. When I found these bodily figurations, it felt like being cradled by a mother as an infant. I trusted and became intimate with the natural environment. I moved slowly in order to intensely feel every tiny movement. This experience was meditative and ended up being a beautiful visual dance that I recorded on video. I will repeat this physical exploration in Enschede, hopefully in a park or other outdoor area. I can’t wait to scout out the spaces!

Find information about the event and the participating artists here.

stacking: a collaborative performance

This past weekend, I took part in a collaborative performance with Netherlands-based performance artist Ieke Trinks at Living Arts of Tulsa. After two days of workshop that included writing exercises and experiments in object orientation, movement, and sound, a group of participants chose a personal object that we collect or have many of. In silence, we stacked our objects for an hour. I chose my sugar cubes since I’ve been working with them in sculpture.

Below is a clip of what happened…

view video

Fingerprints: Topograph of Momentary Interactions

Tags

ephemeral, event, experimental art, glass, happening, interactive art, paint, participation, performance art, temporal

Recently, I conducted an interactive performance during which participants could choose a small pane of handcut glass and decorate it with their fingerprints with black ink/paint. Then, we stacked the glass panes on old overhead projectors. As the stacks grew, the layers of prints became more complex, creating a topographical sculpture, tracing/marking/documenting our temporary existence in the performance space and gallery. As more people added their panes  one amorphous dark cloud emerged, creating one hovering organism made of everyone’s “DNA”. The light shining through through the glass highlighted the intricate, labyrinthine  patterns between and within each person’s prints.

performance artist Ieke Trinks to visit Norman

Ieke Trinks, Netherlands-based performance artist, will be staying with me in Norman this weekend. What a unique opportunity for Oklahoma! She is in residency at Living Arts in Tulsa and will hold workshops and a performance there in the coming weeks.

This weekend, professor and performance artist Bernard Roddy and I will show Ieke around town and do a bit of performance planning ourselves. We will document our venture through Norman’s sights and unique cultural landmarks (coffee shops, parks, hang-outs) and see what comes out of our immersions into each other’s performative lenses.

http://ieketrinks.nl/ 

I will always have an affinity for sewing pins as the perfect material. They hold together and puncture and pierce. They make blankets to comfort, and dresses for dolls, and they make skin bleed. One delicate touch initiates pain or maybe pleasure. The pin initiates connection, while holding things apart; establishes tactile boundaries, while stitching together new bodies.

 

New materials: new bodies

Continuing in project with organic materials to make new bodies. In my studio today…basket, pins, bean pods, lint, Vaseline, shell, spit, fools gold

Developing Series–Organic Material, the Body, and Ephemerality

This semester, I’m focusing on using organic materials to create and pair objects that become poetic images of the feminine, carnality, domesticity, and biological processes. These sculptures are elegies to impermanence of the body. Sometimes sobering, ironic, and maybe a bit creepy, these miniatures aim to remind us that it is our fragility that makes us human and able to feel. Click on the Developing Works on the Dashboard to see more.

Apples, vintage miniature plastic baby.

Letters made of hardened sugar and water.

 

my second curatorial experience

I’m excited to share my second curatorial experience that will take place on February 2nd. Fission:Fusion (a live art experience) asked artists to interpret the terms ‘fission’ and ‘fusion’. What does it mean to experience these processes physically, socially, politically, psychologically?

Artists from around the world will show video works, sound works, and live performance at Living Arts of Tulsa. They are from the Netherlands, Dubai, Berlin, Toronto, San Francisco, and Oklahoma, USA.

info for the show

touchtastesmellfeel: participatory exhibition

Last Friday night, I held a participatory event entitled touchtastesmellfeel at Mainsite Gallery in Norman, OK. The participants were invited to choose various objects from a table and talk with an attendant about how the object made them feel, and what they made them think of. The objects were sugar, almonds, chocolate, dirt, burnt bark, lavender, velvet, feathers, and others. Then, the patrons went into a quieter room and chose instruments that represented how they felt their objects sounded. We asked, what does chocolate sound like? And a violin was played. What does bark sound like? Choppy notes on an piano. They chose from toy organs, violins, bells, drums, and shakers. The resulting recording sounds I am now working with to prepare music tracks of all the objects’ ‘sounds’, which will be available as a full length sound track from the evening. All patrons are now artists.