INSTALLATION
little Secrets
2023
stainless steel,soil, blood meal, activated charcoal, shijilit (healing stones from Russia), paper, Roshen candy wrapper, glass, metal, acrylic
Little Secrets references the soviet childrens game where kids would press chocolate candy wrappers to glass and bury it in the soil for another child to find. The work responds to the burried politics of the Russo-Ukrainian War including the Poroshenko charges and the sale of Ukrainian soil on the Russian black market.
Memory Palace for Maty
2023
tree, dough, activated charcoal, dried flowers coated in activated charcoal, wood, ceramic vessels, hand-dipped candles, fresh bread, Ukrainian Newspaper headlining the Russian Invasion of 2022, piece of concrete, Holodomor bread, necklace made of saliva and bread
Memory Palace for Maty is an exhibition exploring the stories passed down through generations of Ukrainian people. It is a celebration to our mothers and our home lands. It encourages us to share stories of our families and of our homelands and heal the wounds passed down through generations of corrupt power structures. The work was shown at Material Room in Richmond, VA.
This exhibition was done in collaboration with Mauricio Vargas, Sally Wells, Matthew Dowdy, and Anya Shcherbakova at Material Room in Richmond, VA.
Molding an Inner Landscape
2023
paper, tape, poloroid images of drawings
Molding an Inner Landscape was a piece created from a three hour workshop for the exhibition Feralpy held through Flux Factory at Governors Island in New York City. Participants were led through a guided meditation where they developed their own peaceful inner landscapes, drew them out on paper, pulverized them, and formed them into stones - mimicking the process of the rock cycle. The rocks were shown as part of the exhibition along with poloroid photographs of their landscape drawings. At the end, partipants took home their stones to serve as a trail marker to return to their inner landscapes again.
Meeting Place I, There are no rocks in London
2022
clay foraged from the Rappahannock River, wood, glitched aggregate wallpaper, contact paper with images of volcanic rivers, Nike shoes, cell phone, sewing pins, glitched aggregate fabric
This work was shown at the Visual Arts Center in Richmond, VA for the group show Common Thread.
Meeting Place II, There are no rocks in London
2022
short film, clay foraged from the Rappahannock River, wood, glitched aggregate wallpaper, contact paper with images of volcanic rivers, sweaters, disposable cup, Nike shoes, cell phone, headphones, sewing pins, glitched aggregate fabric
Click here to watch the short film.
There are no rocks in London is a project that explores cultivating tactile connection in our current digital and globalized society. This work started when my sister moved overseas to England for school and I felt our relationship drifting apart. At the time, my dad told me that if you step barefooted in the grass you are continuing an electromagnetic circuit between you, the soil, crust, mantle, core, and inner core of the Earth. I thought that if I picked up a rock, somehow on the other side of the world, it would be similar to holding my sister’s hand. I started taking rock rubbings to document this interaction and I asked my sister to do the same. She took the day off from school and as she spent many hours walking around London, in a pit of frustration she texted me, “There are no rocks in London.” At the time I thought this was an absurd statement but, today when I look at the objects I come into contact with on a regular basis they almost all seem to be foreign to the rocks, soil, and microbes we have flowered from.
This work was shown as part of a solo exhibtion at Fried Fruit Gallery in Wilmington, NC. Images courtesy of Madison and Matthew Creech.
Becoming Silt I
2019
steel, rust-dyed cotton, water-soluble thread, Richmond-sourced clay, broken bricks, brick gravel, river water
Becoming Silt II
2021
steel, rust-dyed cotton, water-soluble thread, Richmond-sourced clay, broken bricks, brick gravel, river water
Last summer, I spent every day swimming in the James River. During this time, I came to recognize myself as part of the river. I imagined my body as a water particle chipping away at land and redepositing the silt I carry. When I went walking, I could see my feet picking up the clay on the trails and breaking down the bricks of the city. I could see commuters car parts, train nails, and bike bolts leaving rust stains on the sidewalks then washing away the next day. I learned to move with the masses of people flowing through this city and with the river rushing by.
This work was installed in the James River Park System for one week in June of 2021. Each day the work changed; the weaving dissolved with rain, the steel structures oxidized, clay beads disintegrated, and bricks slowly became sediment all as the river rushed by.
Becoming Silt II is propelled by the desire to grow a deeper relationship to the city of Richmond by becoming intimate with the material make-up of our surroundings. In continuing this exploration, I would like to acknowledge many Indigenous tribes that have held and continue to hold strong relationships with the Powhatan (the original Algonquin name for the James River). These tribes include the Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Monacan, Mattaponi, Upper Mattaponi, Pamunkey, Arrohatac, Weyanock, Appamatuck, Paspahegh, Quiyoughcohannock, Kiskiack, Warraskoyack, Kecoughtan, Nansemond, and others that have been erased due to ongoing colonialism.
a node, a note, a dance
2020
paper, table, pencils, cellphone, china marker
Over the course of three years, my studio drawings were pulverized into pulp and formed into paper stones. The work emerged after visiting the ancient burial sites of Kilmartin, in Scotland, thinking about how one could use mimesis as a way of cultivating a bodily relationship to the rock cycle.
This work was shown at VALLT gallery in Roanoke, VA.
a note
2022
paper, shed
This work was shown in Mineral, VA for the exhibit Out of the Pond.
Watchers II
2019
steel, fabric, wood pla, paper mache, coffee grounds, gmo grass seedThis work was shown at the Anderson Gallery in Richmond, VA.
Watchers I
2019
steel, fabric, wood pla, paper mache, coffee grounds, gmo grass seed, rocks, sticks, dirtThis work was shown in the Fine Arts Building lobby at VCU for one week. Every day circles were drawn with coffee grounds, dirt, and stones marking the location that rocks shifted over the course of the installation.