LIVE THROUGH THIS, 2026
In my reimagined future, a feminist Mother Nature sews, staples, and animates the shells, skins, and debris of mollusks to create a hybrid filtration system. These mutated creatures purposefully inhale silt and pollution, expelling pearls in return.
The resulting artwork is simultaneously abject and decadent in both coloration and materiality. Keloid, scabby, caramel-rust splotches of crystallized salt cling to creamy, milky wedding-dress satins, silks, and laces sourced from secondhand stores, all blanketed in craft-store pearls. This soft, off-white palette evokes the tragic bleaching of coral reefs while serving as a neutral screen for Going Fishing, the aquatic video overlay by Jennifer Gunlock. The secondhand wedding dresses recall discarded oaths and the fragile renewal of promises. The craft-store pearls are aggressively opalescent and overdone; though they nod to an optimistic future, these plastic baubles ultimately have no place in an ecologically conscious world.
Installation materials: Balloons; pool floaties; chicken wire; thrift store sheets, tablecloths & wedding dresses; plaster bandages; paper mache; string; zip ties; rope; lace; adhesive pearls; mattress medium; clear caulk; Elmers glue; pins; penny nails; staples; roofing nails; iridescent powder; acrylic; 3-inch framing nails.
Included in the exhibition Built on Water at Angels Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro, CA, June 27 - August 15, 2026
