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LOW TIDE, WATERFRONT (2016-2019)
I am fascinated by antique stores because someone’s entire life ends up in a bin– crinkled photographs, postcards with messages scrawled on them, and other vintage ephemera hold memories. This series of paintings and collages on paper asks the question– what if we were all gone, but our possessions remained? Perhaps they would wind up washing ashore at low tide, with birds foraging them. Who remembers us then, and how? Does it matter? Of course it does. The poetics of our memory weave us all together as human, even when our experiences are very different from one another. All of our possessions and all our memories become part of the perpetual cycle of life found throughout nature. No where is this more evident than near the waterfront- in tide pools, along beaches, and other natural water ecosystems where decay and regeneration occur so vividly. The waterfront is where our relationship with nature plays out in its most tangible form- it is the nexus of climate change and civilization. Many species of birds reside or migrate along the waterfront. Birds are the protagonists of these works, usurping the place of humans. This series asks us to consider our impact on Earth’s ecosystem while there is still time. |
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