BODY MEMORIES
(2020–ongoing) painting, sculpture, and performance.
A series of work started in 2020 that explores memories through canvas dying, fabric resists and body movement.
Over and Over Again, 2021. Acrylic and dye on canvas, 100 x 70 inches.
If I Can’t See It I Can’t Say It, 2022. Acrylic and dye on canvas, 102 x 80 inches.
Long Fall, 2022. Acrylic and Dye on canvas, 50 x 74 inches.
Red Dress Remanent, 2021-2022. Acrylic and dye on vintage cotton sleep gown.
Green Dress Remanent, 2021-2023. Acrylic and dye on one-of-a-kind artist designed linen dress.
Purple Dress Remanent, 2020-2022. Acrylic and dye on one-of-a-kind artist designed linen dress with equestrian collar.
Stills from: Stuck in Pattern, performance piece with Over and Over Again and Green Dress Remanent. 2022
Stills from: Hot Summer Catharsis, performance piece with If I Can’t See It, I Can’t Say It, Red Dress and Bathing Suit Remanents, 2022.
ABOUT THE SERIES
Body Memories (2020–ongoing)
Presented as abstract paintings, sculptural wall hung remnants of dyed clothing, and performance video, Body Memories (2020–ongoing) is an evocation of femininity and a cathartic exploration of my own body memories.
The paintings are created intuitively using dye, paint, water, clothing and my own body. Once the finished paintings are dry they reveal fossilized marks, stains and imprints created from the fluidity of the water, the resist from the clothing, and energetic marks from my body’s expression. The heavily worked clothing become deeply pigmented sculptural wall works that hold the memory of their former shape, but have become abstraction. The performance, which consists of process and intuitive body gestures, is an esoteric embodiment of me becoming one with the work as a whole—the clothing, the paintings, and my body.
Although the works are highly personal in their creation, they explore universal themes of femininity, the ongoing balance of inner-child and woman-hood, and the sometimes haunting ghost-like presence of generational traumas.
The title for this series, Body Memories, is a concept I learned while uncovering potential causes of somatic (relating to the body, as distinct from the mind) symptoms and phenomena that had no known organic origin, or clear narrative. As I embarked on an emotional and physical healing journey, I learned that in certain instances, memories that are not accessible through the mind can manifest through the body. One of the ways to work to release these physical manifestations, is through movement. I explore these connections in my studio practice daily, which led to the series, Body Memories, in which I attempt to put a tangible and visual manifestation (or memory) to an otherwise, solely somatic and somewhat esoteric feelings.