Vessels

This work was developed while I was an artist in residence in northern Italy, at the Woodman Foundation Residency. The landscape there is ancient and recognizable as part of human history, the terraces of olive groves seemingly changed from those represented in Renaissance paintings. Truly huge terracotta amphorae for the storage of olive oil are still tucked into corners of many cellars of neighboring farmhouse. Classic forms, and their appealing proportions, satisfy our desire for internal logic– and also call to be subverted.

Influenced by the spirit of Betty Woodman, I worked with her clay in her former studio. As she had disassembled her own work to create new forms and installations that quoted historical scenario and the potential innate in the vessel form, the analog for the human body, I thought about the vessel, the permeable body, the containers, the mutuality of experience between the vessel, human and non: femaleness, receptivity, adaptability, posturing, poses, porosity, hybridity, the carrying of things the bearer of life.

Posthumanism—a reimagining of humanity’s place in the world, and a recognition of the permeable boundaries between species, the potency of symbiosis, and the vibrancy of all life forms—is a philosophy to live by. Symbiosis is a profoundly intimate relationship, responsible for the success of life on this planet, including our own. As a member of this planet, I am a symbiote: receptive and porous, both physiologically and mentally.