What is my work about?
Through photography, installation and video, I question consciousness and the nature of existence. I make meditative artworks exploring our sense of connectedness in a world defined by modernization, consumption culture, and environmental transformation.
Examples include a photographic and video work where my pregnant body, becoming method and metaphor, acted as a performance vehicle engaging bystanders to contemplate an emerging life. Installation projects explore the dramatic: post-apocalyptic futures, and the intimate: pasts through storytelling, asking the viewer to physically participate with the art. This self-insertion prompts questioning of divisions between art and life, and the real and imagined.
Artist Statement
My work plays with belief, intuition, and intrusions of physical laws into the worlds we create in our heads. Using photography, video, and installation, I address issues of scale on a geologic and cosmological level. I am convinced that we do not exist outside of worldly forces, that we as individuals, and through our interactions with each other, are often affected subconsciously by the hidden rhythms of the Earth. My work seeks direct interaction with the audience, via invitations to touch the work, or me when I engage in a performance.
Colors we perceive as “unnatural,” a prominent element of my work, all show up in “the wild.” We create them through manufacturing, using chemical processes and reactions – all involving minerals found on the planet. In fact, our very ability to perceive the color spectrum we see comes from deep within our DNA and is prescribed by our genetic code. Our biology is our destiny, even when viewing rainbows.
To achieve my goals of provoking these questions while introducing an ambience of mystery, I utilize the medium best suited to the project. At times I call upon the direct presence of my physical body to act as metaphor and channel. In my installation environments I ask the viewer to insert their own body in order to take in the ideas physically as well as mentally. In the site-specific Campfire Stories, I have created videos and sound pieces that reference local legends to inspire visitors to tell each other stories. In the Glow performance series, I use the long exposure qualities of photography to make a final work that serves both as a photograph in and of itself, and as a document of the public presentation of my body during the hour or so long performance I engaged in while making the photograph. Rub My Belly for Good Luck, during my recent pregnancy, took a new approach, asking bystanders to touch my belly in exchange for good luck wishes. I also took a photograph of each participant’s hand.
I am interested in the unseen, and the tales we tell about the incomprehensible aspects of our world. Sometimes these stories are derided as superstition. However, we have based modern science, which so shapes our world, off of the unseen products of intuition. In making art, I flirt with the edges of science and hope that it responds.
Education
MFA, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California. 2014
BFA, photography, magna cum laude, University of Houston, Houston, Texas. National Merit Scholar. 1997
Birkbeck College, London, U.K. 1995
Selected Exhibitions
* denotes solo exhibitions
THE PROMISE OF SOMETHING AND NOTHING, Sonce Alexander, Los Angeles, California. Curated by Ann Harezlak. (with neverhitsend), 2015
… AND I FEEL FINE, The Re-Institute, Millerton, New York. Curated by Ghost of A Dream. 2015
BLISS POINT, Arena 1 Gallery, Santa Monica, California. Curated by Allen Tombello. 2015
(IM)MATERIEL: Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, California. Curated by Kevin B. Chen. 2015
GREATER LA MASTERS OF FINE ARTS EXHIBITION: California State University, Long Beach, California. 2014
MOTION TRACKING: The Cal Arts Post-Graduate Show: Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, California. 2014
TIME TRAVELERS: Screening with Eve-Lauryn LaFountain Last Projects, Los Angeles, California. 2014
WHEN WE ARE ROBOTS WE WILL STILL GAZE AT THE STARS: Gallery D301, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California. 2014*
POST PRIVATE: NEVERHITSEND: Monte Vista Projects, Los Angeles, California 2014
INAUGURAL EXHIBITION: The Blue Cube, Ventura, California. 2014
NEVERHITSEND: 356 South Mission Road, Los Angeles, California. 2013
FAULT LINES: Human Resources, Los Angeles, California. 2013
GREATER LA MASTERS OF FINE ARTS EXHIBITION (GLAMFA): California State University, Long Beach, California. Curated by Dawn Ertl. 2013
TROPICAL LAB 7: THE POETICS OF TRANSLATION: Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore. Curated by Joleen Loh. 2013
VIDEOROVER: SEASON 6: Nurture Art, Brooklyn, New York, & RAPID PULSE, Chicago, Illinois. Curated by Rachel Steinberg & Giana Gambino. 2013
FAITH IN SCIENCE: The L-Shape Gallery, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California. 2013*
CHIQUITA CANYON LANDFILL FOUND ART EXHIBITION: California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California. 2013
CRIMES OF THE FUTURE: Northside Festival, Brooklyn, New York. Curated by Elisabeth Smolarz. 2012
WATER TOWER ART FEST: Sofia, Bulgaria. 2011
MUSIC BY THE EYEFUL: The Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco, California. performance, with Jean-Luc Sinclair. Curated by Suki O’Kane. 2009
THE ILLUMINATED CORRIDOR: New York, New York. Performance with Jean-Luc Sinclair. 2008
HOLIDAY ART EDITIONS: LMAK Projects, Brooklyn, New York. Curated by Louky Keijsers and Jill Epstein. 2005
CRITICAL CONSUMPTION: Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, New York. Curated by Jonathan Allen. 2003
SCENT: The Proposition, New York, New York. 2003
[seeking] ILLUMINATION: Halcyon, Brooklyn, New York. Curated by Eden Marland. 2003*
ROAD TRIP: Thatcher Projects, New York, New York. Curated by Cindy Rucker. 2003
AMERICAN MYTHS: bridget batch & Jenny Scobell, Galleria Traghetto, Venice, Italy. 2002
FAÇADE: Zwicker Collective, New York, New York. Curated by Ernesto Cuellar y de Acuña. 2002*
BARGAIN HUNTING: Life, New York, New York. Curated by Adam Eckstrom. 2002*
SHAMPOO: aRamona Studio, New York, New York. Curated by Margaret Thatcher and Tommy Everett. 2002
ELEVEN BULLS — NYC: Decatur Blue, Washington, DC. Curated by Jennifer Campbell. 2002
9/11: Rochester Art Center, Rochester, Minnesota. Curated by BJ Shigaki. 2002
ELEVEN BULLS: Project Green, Brooklyn, New York. Curated by Jennifer Campbell. 2002
FLAT FILES: Pierogi, Brooklyn, New York. 2001
ON SALE NOW: Deborah Berke Architects, New York, New York. 2001*
BETTER LIVING THROUGH SHOPPING: Halcyon, Brooklyn, New York. Curated by Oliver Vernon. 2001*
ELEVENBULLS.com: online exhibit. Curated by Jennifer Campbell. 2001*
LIVE, SHOP, DIE: 2-person show, Indigo Gallery, New York, New York. 1999
Awards & Prizes
Merit Scholarship, California Institute of the Arts. 2013
Merit Scholarship, California Institute of the Arts. 2012
Music by the Eyeful performance grant. 2009
Residencies & Fellowships
Hilltop Residency, Val Verde, California. 2014
Fellowship:Tropical Lab, LaSalle University of the Arts, Singapore. 2013
Residency: Klondike Institute of Arts & Culture, Dawson City, Canada 2010
Residency: Grand Canyon South Rim Program, Arizona. 2010
Residency: Herhúsið, Siglufjörður, Iceland. 2009
Residency: Salem Art Works, Salem, New York. 2007
Residency: FABRICA, Treviso, Italy. 2001
Publications
The Promise of Something and Nothing, catalog. August, 2015
VIA Publication Issue 3, “neverhitsend: post-private” August, 2014
Kaminski, William Motion Tracking catalog. Designed by Kat Catmur and Colomba Cruz Elton. 2014
neverhitsend Storquest designed by Lauren Graycar. 2013
Bibliography
Smith, Ryan A. Ventana Monthly “Into the Void” August 1, 2014
Eler, Alicia, Hyperallergic, “Living in a Post-Private World,” March 20, 2014
Parker, Allyson, ArtSlant, “neverhitsend: A Conversation with LA Based Arts & Technology Collective,”
February 8, 2014
Colucci, Emily, Hyperallergic, “At Greenpoint Open Studios, Wacky, Weird and Beautiful Art,” June 9, 2012