Presence - a series of research and artworks 2019 - 2020
Bod(y)ies That Weather - June 2020
Bod(y)ies That Weather presents an environment where I embody my own ecology as a means of presencing in colonial environments. The work contains gathered earth from spaces where I have experienced colonial socio-political violence/s which I used to create pigments for use in casts of my thumbs. The thumbs were then combined with plants which I have been propagating in my home, by creating holes in the cast thumbs and threading the roots of the plants through the casts. Placing these signifiers of my body in water surrounded by soil, the work examines ways which my female Body of Colour weathers politically, socially, culturally and materially in everyday colonial environments. The work was exhibited in an outdoor location for a number of months, interacting with the natural environment, creating its own ecological environment with algae naturally occurring, growing around the cast of my thumbs and the propagated plants.
Damp Atmosphere, (Soundscape) - July 2020
Damp Atmosphere explores moments of having my presence questioned/disrupted within various local, national and global environments. The soundscape replaces language used to describe my physical body with language used to describe the environment and natural resources Intertwines natural matter, earth, dust and water with my embodied Female Body of Colour. The work recite a moment/s of disabled presence by an encounter/s of a repetitive Colonial questioning/s, and the impact these moments have on disabling my connections to my environment and body.
Earth,Body., (Sculpture) - January 2020
Earth, Body. explores personal everyday moments of questioned presence for Bodies of Colour whom reside within colonial spaces. The work examines cultural structures which inform ownership of one’s presence, where one’s body is allowed to reside and the blurred line of consent which informs which bodies are able to touch, encroach, question and hold power over other bodies through social, cultural and political impressions. The work explores this by dissecting forms of violent gestures, through movement, displacement and language, and is concerned with how these violent gestures impress into and distort the presence of Bodies of Colour.
Presence, (Installation) - November 2019
Presence responds to the emotional impact of experiences of Women of Colour being rendered visible/invisible andpresent/absent in everyday environments. The work explores the disruption and fragmented entity of the gendered and racialised body when presence is obstructed whilst also grounding the body to the space it inhabits. The work was created through impressing my physical body and bodies of other Women Of Colour onto beds of clay, to create moulds of these momentary interactions. The moulds were later filled to create wax casts then manipulated to appear in movement. The work also contains braided fake hair which coiled and unravelled around the installation, alongside soil which speaks of movement and displacement as it travels onto the wax casts and fake hair leaving traces of its debris.
