I was an artist in Residence at Oxbow in Seattle, WA from December 2020-January 2021. I used my time at Oxbow to to play and engage with energies, drawings, objects and other beings I had made over the past few years. In The Convening, I played with objects and energies to create gatherings of beings of all kinds within the space of Oxbow. I invited guests to participate in The Convening with their presence or by offering songs, movement, prayers, play, magic, writing etc to the space and the objects in it. It was a wonderful experience and I hope The Convening brought joy and connection to a time when these things are so vital.
Photos by Ripple Fang.
The People’s Republic of Valerie, Living Room Edition is a collaboration between myself and writer and performer Kristen Kosmas. The PRV, LRE , which began in March of 2018 is a performance duet given for free or by donation in living rooms across the country to raise money for Path With Art in Seattle — or other organizations that provide direct aid to unhoused residents in cities beyond Seattle. The PRV, LRE is an abstract political commentary on the seemingly relentless upsurge in violence to people and the planet in recent years. It's an attempt to transform feelings of despair, grief, and rage into something of value, into positive action, into something of beauty that might uplift and create space and occasion for imagination and community. If you are interested to learn more about this project and how to bring the PRV, LRE to a living room near you, please be in touch (email in about page). The black and white images on this page are some of the original drawings made for the 2017 version of the show at On The Boards in Seattle, WA. The images and full text of the show are available in book form from 53rd State Press.
Swallow Me was a 2017 solo exhibition at The Alice Gallery in Seattle WA. In this show I presented drawings and sculptures that explored interdependency, love, and the relationships between all kinds of bodies: humans, architectures, objects.
Photos by Brianna Wray.
Swallow Me, exhibition shot
Swallow Me, exhibition shot
Swallow Me, exhibition shot
Cartographies. 2017. Scratch board. each drawing is 11" x 11." This series of 30 drawings were created in response to Kristen Kosmas’s, The People’s Republic of Valerie, presented at On The Boards in May of 2017.
Cartographies. 2017. Scratch board. each drawing is 11" x 11." This series of 30 drawings were created in response to Kristen Kosmas’s, The People’s Republic of Valerie, presented at On The Boards in May of 2017.
Cartographies (detail). 2017. Scratch board. each drawing is 11" x 11." This series of 30 drawings were created in response to Kristen Kosmas’s, The People’s Republic of Valerie, presented at On The Boards in May of 2017.
Impossible Forms. 2017. Scratch board. Dimensions variable.
Impossible Forms (detail). 2017. Scratch board. Dimensions variable.
Infinite Lovers. 2017. Foam, plaster, paint. 49" x 11" x 16"
Swallow Me. 2017. Foam, plaster, paint, Light Bright bulbs. 28" x 12" x 24"
Swallow Me. 2017. Foam, plaster, paint, Light Bright bulbs. 28" x 12" x 24"
Inside of Me is You Inside of You is Me. 2017. Oil stick on cut paper. 71" x 62"
Inside of Me is You Inside of You is Me (detail). 2017. Oil stick on cut paper. 71" x 62"
Inside of Me is You Inside of You is Me (detail). 2017. Oil stick on cut paper. 71" x 62"
Transmitters. 2017. Pipe cleaners. Dimensions variable.
Transmitters (detail). 2017. Pipe cleaners. Dimensions variable.
Transmitters (detail). 2017. Pipe cleaners. Dimensions variable.
Lean Into Me was my MFA Thesis show at Yale in 2012. The show consisted of four elements: two huge, room-sized boxes filling the center of the gallery; a corner piece made of memory foam; a long, low wall sculpture; and a gallery wall with an embedded foam piece of the impression of a body. This show was about interpenetration and about bodies coming in and out of being separate.
When I Say I Love You was a 2014 performance that is part of an ongoing collaboration with artist and close friend, Christhian Diaz. It was performed at the Whitney Museum as a part of Kevin Beasley’s Public Programs in Sonic Masses. The collaboration between Christhian and me explores questions about communication, language and love through the body and voice. (Scroll to the bottom of the page to play video).
Lessons From Trees was a 2013 solo exhibition at Virginia Commonwealth University. The show consisted of three elements: four long scroll drawings on the floor; 6 tiny portraits of trees; and a two channel sound installation filling the space and coming from four large speakers on the ground. Lessons From Trees was about what happens on the inside of bodies. It was about the way that I am the same as the tree, the tree is the same as the sound, and the sound is the same as the marks made. It was about the dissolving of barriers. (Scroll to the bottom of the page to play sound recording).
This performance first happened in 2009 and continues to be repeated. It varies in length, usually between 10-20 minutes. In this performance I am trying to become one with the wall. The sound of the whistle penetrates the wall and my body. The whistle becomes solid and the wall and me become sound. We all dissolve into each other. It is about desire. (Scroll down to watch video).
The Infinite Lovers is an ongoing project that is asking questions about the nature of love -- how love can dissolve the material and transform the nature of Things. The work, which takes the form of drawings and sculpture, is interested in the possibility that nothing Is singular or separate. It is investigating the idea of multiplicity and simultaneity in search of a realm beyond edges and beyond death. The project is interested in the material reality of love as well as the metaphysical, the psychic and the spiritual.
(merging) is a 2009 performance that was the first of an ongoing collaboration with artist and close friend, Christhian Diaz. It was a three and half hour performance at Cooper Union. In the performance, Christhian and I tried to merge our bodies into one. The collaboration between Christhian and me explores questions about communication, language and love through the body and voice. (Scroll to the bottom of the page to play video).