I was able to participate in a group show in an abandoned brewery out in Paterson NJ in November and December. Four floors of artwork, the space was highly conducive to social distancing and beautiful if you love spaces in decay. My work was installed up on the top floor, among some beautiful circular windows.
Porous Boundaries
Netting made with linen and cotton, 27' x 5' installation
Porous Boundaries endeavors to explore the nature of what keeps us separate from one another, both in our individual selves and on a macro scale. Our natural world is full of barriers that are permeable, yet still protective. As we endure a pandemic, we come to understand that our existences intermingle beyond our skin, orifices and even what we can see or hear. Meanwhile, nation states seek to restrict movement with stark, exact and definitive borders. Animals can no longer migrate, including people. The natural order is disrupted as we carve up space and land as if it were finite and constricted by our beliefs. However, as this pandemic has taught us, the natural world will always regain authority. Impenetrability remains a myth.
Made of plastic, so fantastic
woven plastic bags with metallic warp, multiple sizes
A plastic bag was found at the deepest known point in the ocean, a depth only recently visited by a human. Plastics are overtaking our oceans and being swallowed by mammals and suffocating and entrapping others. Meanwhile, global plastic production is ever increasing, with no signs of ceasing. An offshoot of the petroleum and natural gas industry, will plastic production ever end? Even with a plastic bag ban in effect in NYC, they continue to be ubiquitous.
These weavings, made from bags cut into strips are woven against a metallic weft. They are the only way I know how to transform the ever growing bag of bags in my home into something of value, something that should not be thrown away. If plastic will last forever, maybe we can do something else with it instead of suffocating our planet and ourselves.
