"Queer Immersion", 2023, '12 x 8', Mixed Media (ink, led lights, poster board, confetti, found objects)
I created an immersive environment of a queer club space located in the 6th-floor unisex bathroom at the University of Cincinnati. I transformed the bathroom into a gay club scene that is both unexpected and immersive to the viewer who enters the room. What is visually represented is a safe space that evokes queer iconography and a variety of colors, lights, sounds, and sensations. To make this a collaborative and community piece I asked people within the LGBTQ+ community to submit their favorite queer anthem, where I then created a playlist with those songs which then play throughout the entire installation. I wanted to discuss the interconnections and conversations that happen and the people you meet while in a bathroom. The work focuses on the interactions and the sense of community that these spaces provide. Since these locations are diminishing as time goes on I also hope to convey the sense of history and importance that these places have in a way to preserve them.
"Storm Windows", 2023, "32 x 48", digital photography, found objects
I created a piece to discuss the themes of family dynamics and windows as a way to witness people's lives. Growing up with two younger brothers, I became a motherly figure at a young age by helping clean the house, cook dinner, help with school work, and was often left alone to take care of my younger siblings. Feeling like many of my family’s responsibilities rested on my shoulders, I tried for years to be consistent and unproblematic to keep the family together. At the age of 15, my parents divorced due to my mother cheating on my father and my “motherly” role elevated as I felt I had to take even more care of my siblings and now father. This piece evokes a period in my life where I had to take the place of my absent mother. Feeling like the roles were reversed in the way that I now had to console and take care of my father, I created this work to represent the transition in life to caring for one's parent. To create the work I use a storm window from my childhood home and an image inside that depicts my father and I in an embrace. Storm windows represent protection and comfort, but also a vessel to gaze into a person's life. I allow the viewer to peek into the glass and witness vulnerable moments between father and daughter.
"It's a Long Time to Wait", 2023, performance, digital photography, found objects.
With themes of isolation, waiting, loneliness, and family dynamics as a continuation of my last piece, Storm Windows, I created a performance piece centered on the relationship between my mother and me. I began the performance by sitting at a pair of chairs waiting for someone to fill the seat next to me. The location of the work takes place in a space where my mother and I would often go when they wanted to enjoy ourselves by drinking hot chocolates and reading books. After the events of my parent’s divorce, I was unable to bring myself back to this location due to the complicated feelings it evoked. I sat and waited 35 minutes and 22 seconds which represents the 5 years 9 months and 11 days since my mother left, broken down for each second to represent each day that has gone by. After 35 minutes of waiting my mother enters the scene where we then sit in our once sacred place of leisure and happiness while discussing our relationship in an attempt to mend our mother-daughter bond.