In my artistic practice, I focus on process oriented, narrative based Site-Responsive projects in Environmental, Digital, Performance and Installation Art.
During the Covid lockdown in Los Angeles, I wasn't able to continue with my Installation Art practice, since both the viewer and access to space are crucial to my work. Not wanting to abandon my art, I spent the next ten months taking classes and exploring ways of transitioning my work to the virtual space. One of my goals was to focus on nature and find a way that enabled me to create an immersive virtual experience for the viewer.
I ended up taking a mask making class with Bryan Melillo at Morbid Anatomy. I was intrigued at the idea of removing my masks, rather than creating another one to wear.
At the time, the Black Lives Matter protests were in full swing in LA, and my friend Badir McCleary was documenting the events with his drones. I was so stunned when I saw his imagery and films. I had no idea that emotions and energy could be perceived and felt from that height. One day I had a eureka moment, and I asked Badir if he would be willing to capture my performances with his drone. Badir chose the location and we shot two perfomances. That day was the first time I had left my house since the onset of the pandemic. The location was busy, because it was a warm day. It was wonderful to have a live audience to perform with. It is also wonderful that these films are not documentaries, but truly Performance Art film.
Through restriction, comes innovation. From Covid emerged a new artistic discipline.
Watching a Performance Art Film with footage captured by a drone, the viewer is able to inhabit the space and the place of the performer without the barriers of a traditional ground level stage, video or film perspective. A Performance Art Film captured by a drone and edited by a filmmaker, immerses the viewer in the performer's experience as they go within and turn the space of self-within-nature, inside out. As the performer viewing the film, I was shocked at my feelings of vulnerability that arose. I thought it was beautiful, and I cried. In that moment, I realized that Badir had captured my maskless self.
Nature demands an authentic, spiritual, in the moment response from me-like noticing the breeze that whispers through my hair and across my face as I close my eyes and turn my face to the warm sun. Nature demands that I am engaged, captivated by all of my senses and emotions. I become a Shamaness: seeing, feeling and hearing the stories of my soul unveiled. I become the place, because it mirrors the indefinable in me, enabling me to integrate the undefined into my experience of being in the place and becoming the place. I'm the beloved under the sun, the rain, the stars. I'm one with the sand, the sea, the sky. Badir captures this.
Earth, in her infinite wisdom, transforms the discard into seeds for new life.
It is a form of ritual symbiosis.
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| still shot from Detoxification, 2021 shot by Filmmaker Badir McCleary |
The eggs are offerings that symbolize all the gifts received and those yet to be born.
Dear Sun, Thank You (2020) Fire (completed)
Detoxification (2020) Earth (completed)
Sea of Grief (2022) Water (WIP editing)
As Yet Untitled (TBA) Air
Aether (TBA) (NFT/Cryptoart project)
