materials used:

drift wood - stained dark red

medical pills strung into garlands (medication was all expired; there are no opioids)

collage garlands from online news publications - prints cut as circles & strung together

medical face mask PPE garland - medical masks cut as circles & strung together

cardboard boxes (shipping cardboard boxes) - cut & glued together to represent a door and a window

acetate film - inserted & sandwiched into the window frame to represent transparency

burlap rope - used for garlands, & to hang the whole sculpture

steel metal rings (spray painted black), steel wire (spray painted black), steel hooks, glue

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about the mobile sculpture:

“The Door, The Window & The Threshold.”  In answering this artist call I felt like I ought to create a space which would consist of certain fundamentally basic parts that we identify with the house.  Apparent was the aspect of creating in actual human scale as I wanted this piece to be experienced.  Thus, there are four major elements to the sculpture: door (6’-8” x 3’ - minimal legal door height), window (3’ x 4’-3”), string “garlands.”  There are a total of eight string garlands: five pill string garlands, two political news clippings garlands, one medical face mask PPE garland.  These main elements and others attempt to communicate the most fundamental experiences of the notion of the BARRIER, BALLANCE, & TIPPING POINT during the shelter-in-place for world-wide epidemic of covid-19.  During the year of 2020 and way into 2021 people have witnessed some of the most profound shifts in social behaviour, political crises, human rights advocacy & racial public unrest.  Here, in Northern California we bore witness to the most devastating wildfires in the recorded history of the state.  For a day the environmental catastrophe loudly played itself out in rendering the sky into a gravely deep hollywood-esque orange.  There are parts of the string garland which refer to the wildfires.  The many “plagues” of 2020 culminated on January 6th, 2021 when the Capitol building of the US Congress was run over by the pro-Trump crowd & delicately balanced political structure of the democratic elections of this country was realisitcally threatened.  Two political string garlands of the sculpture show some of the most horrifying moments of the political collapse.  2020 was a challenging and eye-opening year where doors & windows served as our entry points into the world while also preventing the outside world from coming in - these home elements performed as our saviour and emotional accusers - “together apart” kept on ringing in my head, over and over, and over again.  They were the emotional & physical barricades.  Among many things Shelter-In-Place became viewed as a necessary real-time “experiment” on human tolerance of separation from other humans and regular human activity.  Socializing and sharing private and public spaces became illegal.  The pill string garlands hint at the tipping point which were reached many times over during the pandemic by many people in many situations.  There are issues of TRANSPARENCY, this sculpture is to be read as “see-through” both visually and experientially.  It is intended to be experienced from within and in-between.  The window is there to be looked-out off.  At the time of the past presidency where lack of political transparency within the governing body, manipulation of facts, its disregard for journalism and reporting as a means for the public to see the truth was a norm, I felt as though the concept of transparency must be a big part of this sculpture piece. 

 

Having a child at home on distance learning during the past year I saw as the digital screen substituted all social & physical activities.  Hang-out with friends fully “travelled” via internet & roblox.  Lots of family birthdays went celebrated over zoom.  My brother’s stories about the medical situation in New York and Brooklyn in addition to already gruesome news reports sharpened an already acute sense of anxiety.  Anxiety showed up in many forms.  Lack of understanding of the disease itself and complete confusion about the transmission for many, many months made world view converge into black holes of nothingness.  Walking in the park with my elderly parents was a challenge since sitting down to rest couldn’t be done because benches were wrapped in caution tape.  My mother in law did not go to the store for exactly a year, and only after receiving her 2nd vaccine, she decided she finally could visit a grocery store.  Many small and large details have shaped 2020 and continue to shape 2021.