Humans are intrinsically connected through natural phenomena: a web of physical and immaterial energy binds each and everyone one of us together whether you are sitting next to someone, on the opposite side of the planet or on the other side of the solar system. I am interested in moving beyond the binary of my individuality to examine the ways in which this energy shapes our collective consciousness. The big question for me is, in what other ways can this phenomena be reflected?  

My late mother was a doctor specializing in developmental pediatrics and she was very grounded in the way that she thought about her life and her work. She was a survivor of a war and she balanced a sense of pragmatism in her professional life but at home she would express herself in ways that I thought to be very superstitious. I did not have the vocabulary to characterize her beliefs and I was always shocked when she refused to kiss me goodbye based on where we were standing. I would be standing outside the doorway and she would be inside and insist that we could not kiss each other goodbye within the threshold of the door. The netherworld between “the outside and the inside”.

I have spent the last 4 years studying and incorporating forms of esoteric practices into my life and it has naturally affected my studio work. I want to look beyond traditional western models like Tarot or Astrology and expand upon my ancestral connection to kabbalah (Jewish Mysticism). Rather than showing up for work every day, I have been showing up for my practice everyday. My way of expressing this immaterial energy has mostly come to life in the form of a verbal witches brew: specifically, the way I have been titling my work (Pieces of the Whole).

It has been 10 years since my Mother’s passing in 2014. She mothered me through her passing, explaining that all good things must come to an end and that she will miss me, as I will her. I’m still not sure how she thought about her spirit and how our spirits are connected but her superstitions clue me into what might be a shred of a guiding principle that I am left to interpret. I’m thinking of her idiosyncratic personality traits and how they tickle my curiosity. How they creep into my unconscious and consciousness.

My Mother witnessed many families get torn apart through wartime and she was incredibly grounded in science and western thought. Being a young adult I did carry shame through it all and I would lose my patience as she would stop me from saying goodbye outside of the door and she would pull me inside, or take a step outside towards me in order to give me my kiss goodbye.

Her belief was that nothing physical, such as a threshold, should create a separation between us while we said goodbye in order to ensure that our goodbye would only be temporary. I want to share this excavation and research various phenomena in our practices. The curation should speak to our connectedness in the way that we concept and produce work.

How are these energies embedded in our lives?  How do they connect us to our familial roots?  It occurred to me that superstitious ways of thinking are a global practice. Interpreting the cosmos, meditation, thoughts of time travel and even the application of make-up is a ritual of creating a mask or as my aunt used to say: to “put on her face”, a transformational spell into a new persona.

The Greeks and Romans suggested that sacred knowledge was brought to earth by celestial visitors. For me, it began with the further contemplation of my mom and the way in which she lived life. Pythagoras believed he had supernatural powers to control natural phenomena. I am interested in detaching gender norms and this style of colonial control from a historical patchwork of ideology to intentionally re-classify and deconstruct the way we think about our place in the world and our ancestral ties.

I envision a curation of either new work or pre-existing work that will come together in the same way that we are all interconnected. By turning to my community of artists and friends.