In 2020, I constructed a site specific installation titled OOUAUUA. The first step in this installation process was to relocate objects that had literally piled up in my studio. I transported individual components including pieces of rope, swaths of sewn and wired fabric, and wrapped pieces of metal to a clean and empty space. Next, I took stock of the material components on the floor of the installation space like an entomologist might observe her organized mounted insect collection. It was only until I could see each object clearly that I was ready to start connecting, assembling and arranging.
The site-specific installation process required improvisational making and a commitment to flexibility, a willingness to challenge initial ideas, and dexterity. Creating OOUAUUA not only called for openness towards the materials and components I collected, but also openness in my actual physical body. The improvisational quality of this installation process had a specific physical feel. From carrying to laying to dragging to placing to hanging–a choreography emerged and infused the material components with a precarious life force.
In May of 2022 I visited the Morgan Conservatory in Cleveland, Ohio. Over the two days I spent at the renowned papermaking facility, I created this series of paper pieces titled Reflexes. I borrowed the process I had established while constructing OOUAUUA to make this body of work. I transported various material elements from my workspace in Detroit (knitings, pieces of fabric etc) to Cleveland and laid them out in the Morgan’s papermaking studio in such a way that I could again, take stock of the material components at my disposal.
The choreography that emerged at the Morgan felt spontaneous and daring: after collecting paper pulp with a mold and deckle, I would choose from my laid out selection of material components and quickly assemble the pieces on the wet and waiting flat surface. Unlike the steady and slow process required to construct the knitted components I brought with me (loop by loop) these paper pieces were constructed through automatic responses. I made decisions unburdened by the reality that each piece's final form would be determined by the weight and pressure of the paper drying system.
These works, now frozen in place by the papermaking process, are time capsules of my energy that contributed to their creation.
