Statement|CV
Statement
I am a performance and new media artist with a fondness for six pack rings and human touch. I am obsessed with the flash in the pan, the inexhaustible pleasure, and the endless high of what we call pop culture. I'm interested in the mechanics of how ideas, images, people, etc become popular and how long that duration is. The things that survive, like artifacts will become our culture thus leading to the equation pop = immediacy / culture = longevity.
My work employs researching, developing, and adapting sensate focused exercises to examine the nuances and politics of touching bodies through performance, video, audio recordings, social practice interventions, and instruction based art. Utilizing directive language and memory prompts to illicit audience participation during performances, charcoal powder is employed to leave visible marks on the skin of the performer, on the one hand providing the carbon copy of the moment, and on the other, creating a visual record of how these interactions build up on a body. Using charcoal as a visible medium repeats in studio with single channel videos featuring both pairs and solo participants. This work creates space for bodies to interact and provide a record of that contact. The placement, repetition, and intensity of the marks reveal a silent conversation rife with questions about trust, connection, power, and sexuality.
This work inherently tests the boundaries of consent and comfort both for the performer and the participant. We live in a society that treats bodies as commodities to be protected, policed, covered, and used. Putting a body in a position to be interacted with challenges these structures while highlighting individual interactions to be examined and critiqued.
Education
B.F.A. - The College of New Jersey 2007
New York University Gallatin School of Individualized Study 2002 -2003
Selected Residencies
Groundwork V Southwest Harbor, ME
Selected Awards
2019
Maine Arts Commission Artist Project Grant – My Body is Your Body is Everybody is Nobody
White Girl Wasted Critics Choice Awards (3) PortFringe 2019
#thisisfringe
WAIT. WHAT-WHAT-WHAT DID I JUST SEE?? (you have to see for yourself!)
SWIPE RIGHT (these artists/this show was hot!)
Selected Exhibitions
2019
Consent, Intent, & Boundaries, Maine International Film Festival, Waterville, ME
White Girl Wasted, PortFringe, Portland, ME
Body | Mass | Absolution, ChaShaMa, NYC
Modern Intimacy, Portland, ME
Everybody Has a Story, Rochester, NY
2018
Documented Humans, Alexandria, VA
Body|Mass PortFringe, Portland, ME
Validity, Catapult Gallery, Cape Girardeau, MO
Consent, Intent, & Boundaries, Portland, ME
Tiny Acts Topple Empires, Penn State, State College, PA
Cold Cold Night (Body|Mass Performance), Portland, ME
2017
Topiary Garden Sacred & Profane, Peaks Island, ME
Handled Gallery 263, Cambridge, MA
Hey Baby (Nest Performance) New Fruit, Portland, ME
My Body is Your Body is Everybody is Nobody Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME
Radical Presence PortFringe, Portland, ME
Landscaping for the Post Atomic Age Temp to Perm, Portland, ME
Touch Me/Wash Me Cambridge School of Weston, Weston, MA
2016
Touch Me/Wash Me TEDxDirigo Dissonance, Portland, ME Touch Me/Wash Me Maine Youth Conference, Lewiston, ME Nest Sacred & Profane, Peaks Island, ME
Huh (in lights) Hallowell, ME
Modern Intimacy & Pop Feminism Oak Street Lofts Gallery, Portland, ME
Touch Me/Wash Me New Fruit, Portland, ME
2015
Modern Intimacy Masonic Temple, Portland, ME
Cloud Sacred & Profane, Peaks Island, ME
2014
Dinner @ Eight Butch Voices Conference, San Francisco, CA
Isobel TCNJ Alumni Show, Ewing, NJ
2013
Touch Me/Wash Me 3 Fish Gallery, Portland, ME
Sensory Circus Meg Perry Center, Portland, ME
Create Maine College of Art, Portland, ME
2012
Edges of Vision 3 Fish Gallery, Portland, ME
Seeking Wonderland (chess set) Governor's Island, NYC
Seeking Wonderland Sylvia Kania Gallery, Portland, ME
Plasticitis Strain SP 1 The Thought Lot, Shippensburg, PA
We Conjure Tornadoes The Dooryard Art Collective, Portland, ME
2011
(dis)orientation The Dooryard Arts Collective, Portland, ME
Touch Me (My Skin Will Keep You) 21 Rooms,Nevada Motel; York, ME
Ravage Me Until I Can't Breathe Anymore Sylvia Kania Gallery, Portland, ME Obsessive Tendencies (Sommes Nous....) Sylvia Kania Gallery, Portland, ME
2010
Obsessive Tendencies (Fortress) Sylvia Kania Gallery, Portland, ME Obsessive Tendencies (Mea Culpa) Sylvia Kania Gallery, Portland, ME Souviens Toi video – Rouges Gallery event; Portland Maine
Selected Residencies
Groundwork V Southwest Harbor, ME
Bibliography
Hottinger, Lauryn; “Heart & Soul”; Maine Women's Magazine: Vol11 #11 (February 2018) 48
http://mainewomenmagazine.com/heart-soul/
Martin, Ariel L; “Art Happens”; Portland Monthly Magazine: Vol 26 # 8 (November 2011) 23,25,70 http://www.portlandmonthly.com/portmag/2011/10/art-happens/
Bryan, Shannon; “Having an art attack at York's Nevada Motel” Portland Press Herald: September 22, 2011 http://www.pressherald.com/life/go/artandtheater_2011-09-22.html
Morris, Michael; “Mirror Reflections”; Portland Monthly Magazine: Vol.26 #1 (Feb – March 2011) 16
Dodge, Matt; “Graffiti clash brings both sides to Space”; Portland Daily Sun: Vol. 3 #54 (April 19th, 2011) http://portlanddailysun.me/news/story/forum-brings-graffiti-debate-arts-community
Dodge, Matt; “Back and Forth Continues Over Graffiti”; Portland Daily Sun: Vol 3 #56 (April 21, 2011) http://portlanddailysun.me/featured/story/back-and-forth-continues-over-graffiti
Dodge, Matt; “Graffiti Panel Reaction Varies”; Portland Daily Sun: Vol 3 #56 (April 21, 2011)
http://portlanddailysun.me/news/story/graffiti-panel-reaction-varies
Boards and Committees
Portland Public Art Committee - 2018 - Present
Maine Masters Committee – 2011 – Present
The Dooryard Arts Collective – 2010 – 2014
Creative Portland Corporation – 2009 – 2013
Portland Public Art Committee – 2010 – 2013