UCSC MFA PORTFOLIO
What is Love: Video Installation (3min 40sec sample), digital video, 2.5 hours, 2015-7
To collectively, collaboratively and currently redefine ‘love,’ I drove over 17,000 km across CAN/US in a 1977 RV I’d remodelled to be a pop-up photo studio, setting up at diverse locations along the way where I engaged in 300+ conversations with individual passersby, and documented our exchanges using a digital camera, flash, and audio recorder.
It’s a Sign 001, c-print, and dibond, 44”x44”, 2013
Solitary portraits within landscapes, images of outdoor signage made blank over time, bringing to mind the question “What is nature/natural?”
A Kind of One of a Kind: Trevin, interactive performance, found objects, and paper, 4”x6”, 2019
A communally based project investigating sentiment, value, memory, and identity.
AND THEN IT HIT ME (40sec sample), interactive installation, found objects, paper, and sound, 2019
Encouraging re-consideration of the traditional heteronormative social narratives found in the lyrics of most popular songs continually repeated, publicly and privately, for generations.
Love Letters to Turbulence: Quilt (in progress), found objects (used sheets), thread, and wooden dowel, 60”x48”, 2021-ongoing
A safety blanket for survivors to use when intimately activated and unable to verbally articulate. Side one holds a safe word suggesting “I’m ok, stay near, give me time.” Side two repeats X’s suggesting “I’m severely activated, please keep away until I am ready to communicate more clearly.” The quilt remains unfinished as a survivor’s work is always in progress.
Must I I Must Leave My Mark (proof), canvas print, 85”x43”, 2018
Exploring the mark that current day ‘stewarding’ of ‘private’ lands through ‘ownership(s)’ leaves.
Love Letters to Turbulence: Video (proof), collage, found objects, and sound, 1 min 55sec, digital video, 2021-ongoing
Referencing gendered behaviour in relation to age and sexual assault. The soundtrack is a collaborated audio-collage of collected recordings from trauma survivor’s self-directed individual acts of self-care.
Collaborators: Josh Stevenson, Aaniya Asrani, Robin Kort, Daniela Guerro-Rodrigues, Patricia Ruiz, Marieke Helmke, and Beau Wheeler
Love Letters to Turbulence: Book (proof 001-6), watercolor, ink, photo retouching fluid, graphite, conte, and a vintage typewriter, 8.5’x8.5”, 2021-ongoing
A transdisciplinary art project exploring ideas of identity and re-examining autobiographical narratives relating to trauma through interweaving drawing, text, digital media, sound, and video alongside an interactive website and workshops. These are proofs from an in-progress, loose-leaf, 800+ page, interchangeable art book, and intended for additional use in workshops.
Love Letters to Turbulence: Interactive Website (proof), digital media, 2021-ongoing
(Intending to be) a publicly-accessible website for collecting and reading anonymous survivor and supporter’s stories relating to trauma, support, and healing.
Head in the Hole (proof), interactive sculpture, repurposed wood, and paint, 48”x72”x48”, In-Progress
Folding, life-size sculptures depicting identity tropes alluding to the “American Dream.
Death Conversation Game, card deck (90 cards, instruction booklet, tuck box), 2.5”x3.5”, 2019-ongoing
A tool created to help facilitate conversations on death in a chosen environment.
Thank you!