A brief taxonomy of a lot, 2011

More information coming soon. For now read the blog.

Some Comfort, 2010/2011

Some Comfort collects together interviews with women who provide care as part of their job. They are nurses, nannies, doulas, and others who provide care as part of their daily labor. These 'care professionals' are required to produce emotions for their clients. I asked each participant to repeat the sounds that they often make while at work. Sounds such as , 'I know, I know. It's okay,' are repeated in a soothing litany. Removed from their original context, the sounds of care recorded in the interviews offer a reflection on how affective labor is produced and sustained.
The installation adopts the aesthetics of the professional world, clean lines and minimal decoration provides a contrast to with the emphemeral sounds made by 'care professionals'. For viewers sounds are accesible via QR code tags and/or a telephone hotline. When listening to the sounds, viewers feel as if they are the ones being comforted.

Jessica, Doula 0:22 secs

Some Comfort exhibitions: Hyde Park Art Center in the 2010 exhibit Ground Floor ; MDW Fair 2011 curated by Pat Elifritz/Old Seoul

Press for the Ground Floor exhibit and Some Comfort.

Click here for the project website.


Twenty Two Reviews, 2010

Twenty Two Reviews is an exhibition about art, labor and motherhood presenting work by nine artists accompanied by a unique audio guide. The audio guide was created from interviews conducted with each artist about her experiences balancing creative work and motherhood. Participating artists are authors, painters, sculptors, poets, cultural workers and arts educators. Some participants are parenting newborns, while others parent college age children. The interviews were conducted over several months in 2009 and 2010.

Sarah K., 2:21 mins

Lara O., 2:22 mins

This project was presented in the Krannert Art Museum and was organized to intervene in the institutional space of the museum. Click here for the project website.


A thing in common, 2009

A thing in common begins with the idea that we need a thing in common to communicate and offers to be that thing. To use take one card and offer it to someone you would like to talk to, then hold onto the card after then other person accepts your initial offer. This action creates a instant common space.

Made in an edition of 100 on a Vandercook letter press at the University of Illinois, each thing in common is the approximate size of a business card for maximum portability.


One Landscape for Another: Ghost Mountain, 2009

Ghost Mountain,is a site-specific installation imagining the ability to call up the ghost of landscape destroyed by mountain top removal coal mining through the electric power grid. The installation includes the soundpiece: 6 Semis Per Day, recorded at the Abbott Power Plant on the University of Illinois campus. The sound piece refers to the amount of coal used in producing steam in electricity each day.

6 Semis Per Day excerpt, 2:08mins.

This piece was represented in 2010 as part of the Dirt Performance Series at Links Hall in Chicago. Dirt, curated by Deke Weaver, was a month long investigation into how we shape the land and the land shapes us.