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Off the Pedestal. I nstallations Performance. Rory MacDonald. Akiko Jackson. “Getting back to my roots”. Jeanne Quinn “Where I live, this is what the sky looks like”. Molly Hatch. Julie York. “Beauty Distilled”. Misty Gamble, “Covetous”. “Indulgence”.
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Off the Pedestal Installations Performance
The Martyr is at once a hoarder and a provider. She may be viewed as opposing sides of the same character, at war with each other, or as two individuals at odds, refusing compromise and unable to work together. In many countries experiencing water poverty, individual gain is sacrificed for the greater good of the family, or even of the larger society. By examining actions of self-service, self-sacrifice, and self-centeredness,Thirst, and the Martyr questions the availability and distribution of resources critical to our survival on this planet. Hope is challenged but not fully extinguished as the struggle drones on.
Description of the project Hunger, Philadelphia’s exhibition at The Painted Bride: “The first floor of the gallery housed a clay-covered landscape in which a 15’ banquet table was piled high with clay casts of fruits and vegetables. Clay-covered female figures in clay-drenched clothing moved slowly through this monochromatic, arid environment eating clay vegetables. They were visibly miserable—shaking with cold, and hungry. The air was heavy with the smell of bread and we were surrounded by activity: excessive consumption of a non-nutritive food substitute. Deep, grumbling, non-melodic sound vibrated up from under the floor, through the thick rug of dead sod underfoot, up into our thighs. Occasional pauses in this soundscape left the air tense, pregnant with expectation, reminding us of the tenuousness in our state of being alive. “One model seemed to be keeping time for the piece. She repeatedly crushed small bits of clay and formed piles, quietly gridding them in the corner as if building a sort of calendar. “Following this solitary, introspective experience we moved upstairs, walking along a screened corridor (through which we could see a garden inside). At the corridor’s end, we were confronted with our own reflection in a door before passing through it into a communal space. Here, a waist-high garden in 8 mobile units full of mature fruits and vegetables buzzed with quiet discussion about the activity on the lower level. It was a place to decompress, to reflect, to discuss the issues surrounding hunger raised below. It was a place for community to share, to eat together from plants grown onsite. Vermiculture boxes running down one wall completed the life cycle of sprouting, consumption, growth, death, decay, and reuse/re-growth.
