work in progress: “Sense of Place”
Follow along here for project updates.
Re-Earth: Regarding Altars- Odyssey of the Object: Book
The altar(ing) (honoring) & dis-regarding, then altering, re-altar(ing) & regarding of objects (especially earth-originated objects) is the basis for this project. I wonder about who made the originals, and about “where are they now”. The imprint & record of the changes that occurred while the objects were underwater, and continue to occur while the objects are burried under plants and earth, run parallel to the changes that take place in one’s life- be it gradual or sudden.
Late 2005 I was gifted a large collection of bisque-fired slip-cast ceramic figures, plates & oddities (300 + objects). This came about after Hurricane Rita came through South Louisiana; a woman cleaning her home in the recently flooded “down the bayou” Dularge, LA offered the objects to my colleague, who in turn offered them to me (knowing my affinity for filling my space with the discarded objects of others). The objects were the relics of the kind woman’s deceased husband’s years of work at the local senior center as “ceramics pourer” (as she proudly stated). We set about visiting with the Mrs. Yvonne in her gutted, bare-beamed home; listening as she re-counted her Hurricane Katrina and Rita experiences. The objects had soaked for weeks in the flood waters from Bayou Grand Caillou; she thanked us immensely for our help in clearing her home of the objects, as we set about loading my vehicle floor to ceiling with cracking cardboard boxes full of unknown treasures.
Since 2005, the objects have been buried throughout a friend’s overgrown garden, next to a wooden house in the swamps of South Terrebonne. In 2007 I began excavating some of the objects; which had taken on some lovely mold colonies, embedded soil and the imprints of the plants that have cycled next to them. In late 2010 images of the objects in their plant world were presented at the (scene)metrospace gallery in East lansing Michigan, as part of their “IDEAS” show.
Art of the Bayou
