Separation/ Connection Performance

This past weekend I did a collaborative performance with other Maine College of Art Alumni in Portland, ME. It was an intensive workshop with people traveling from all over the country to participate. The theme was Separation/ Connection, a very broad topic that we navigated by individually  discussing our personal ties to the subject.  After doing numerous exercises and learning more about each other we came to the decision to work together in one large group.

The culmination of our weekend efforts was an hour long, silent communion with each other. Using blue ribbon, we attempted to illustrate the forming of relationships and the disconnect within them. Visually it became a map of the way we communicate with one another, sometimes passively, other moments with violence.

To me this event held both touching moments of strength and endurance. I found the way we spoke silently by sewing one another together, and at times breaking that thread, to be very different to way we verbally communicate. Even our body language changed during the performance. By slowing down our movements, we became reflective of a far more deep rooted understanding of one another. Our basic functions were revealed, the way we grow and the way we regress. Nature and nurture were playing a funny game.

The Dream Rocket Project

I just finished my submission to the International Fiber Collaborative new project: The Dream Rocket.

--For those that don't know the International Fiber Collaborative is a non-profit organization founded in 2007 by Jennifer Marsh. The IFC orchestrates great projects like The Gas Station Project I participated in. -People from all over the world submitted fiber panels based on the worlds dependency on oil, these panels were then stitched together, forming a quilt which entirely encased a gas station.


The Dream Rocket is another version of wrapping: the 37 story tall Saturn V Rocket replica standing at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville is going to be encased. 





 
The fiber panels submitted are based on the idea of dreams, but what dream that is is up to you. My submission is based on the idea of peace, on the logo of people holding hands around the world, only my version is of trees, and their branches touching surrounding the earth. 


You'll be able to see the completed project in 2011 at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville, AL, but until then you can check my submission out at the Earlyworks Children's History Museum, Huntsville, AL and at the Great Explorations Children's Museum, St. Petersburg, FL.