Energy is always conserved, never created or destroyed
-exploring the transformative possibilities of energies
Installation, 2015
Elsewhere, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA
Old cloth, machine-sewn and embroidered; old objects; soundscape
Soundscape
- Musical saw and sitar by Luther Bangert, recorded by Brooks Strause in Iowa City
- Bits of old songs and human breaths/sighs/whispers recorded by Ng Xi Jie at Elsewhere (featuring the human sounds of Jennie Carlisle, George Jenne, Ellis Anderson, Chris Cloud, Fhalyshia Orians, Coco Spadoni, Catherine Clark and Lottie Yost)
- Mixed by Ng Xi Jie
Special thanks to the above collaborators, Jennie Carlisle, Blair Bogin and Elsewhere
Listen to the soundscape here
With its extensive secondhand collection, Elsewhere is a world of lives and deaths unto itself, a kaleidoscopic universe of human history, consumption, romance and memory. The energies of old things can be nostalgic and melancholic, even overwhelming. And like the entire universe, Elsewhere’s collection (which, as a rule, never grows or diminishes) is a closed circuit of energy that can only transform within itself. This work is an exploration into the recycling of energies and its transformative possibilities to create a harmonisation zone.
Within the Elsewhere universe, the work is a portal to another cosmos underneath the messy first floor toy bin. Inside this small, dim, underutilised space, one finds an opportunity to meditate and recenter in a ritualistic environment. Accommodating a single body, one rests atop a blanket sewn with an imprint of a body and chakra wheels. The body outline is mapped to my own, creating a resonance between artist and visitor. Chakras are important energy centers in the body and affect our wellbeing on different levels. When blocked, energy cannot flow well through the body. The act of lying on the blanket represents a symbolic harmonization. The chakra wheels hand embroidered on corresponds to chakra colours and forms.
Two objects (an embellished golden hoop and a beaded vagina) from past Elsewhere resident XX’s work act as the sun and moon and represent the harmony of masculine and feminine energy (yin and yang). Looking up, one sees a constellation blanket with 7 chakra wheels represented by 7 round objects from the collection. Constellations made from old beads and embroidery were conceived from a numerological pattern; one of them represents Sylvia’s hat in the photo by the entrance.
When in the space, visitors put on headphones and are aurally transported to a cosmic realm where ethereal musical saw and sitar mix with intimate sounds of sighs, whispers and breathing from the lungs of Elsewhere staff and artists, as well as dreamy fragments of old songs from the collection’s records, played on the collection’s record player.
The entrance curtain is embroidered with the title of the work and ‘go under’ as a reference to the space’s past history as Underwater World. A display box at the ‘headboard’ of the mattress, visible when one is inside the installation, is lit up and installed with a peaceful array of items around a Buddha centerpiece. Some of the objects used to exist in Underwater World, like the flamingo. A stub reading TREASURES FROM THE SEA and an array of classy, mesmerising jewellery help imagine what Sylvia, the eccentric Elsewhere proprietor, might have adorned.
The cloths used were selected from the extensive Elsewhere fabric collection for their calming qualities, and washed (lots of dirt emerged). Objects that project a cleaner energy were used, and were selected from the archive through a process of intuition, then cleansed in salt water. All the cloths and materials were also cleansed with reiki before installation. Reiki is an energy practice that channels universal energy through the giver to the receiver, providing healing effects.
Overall, the work aims to help visitors harmonize themselves within a cosmic aesthetic that posits them as beings in an abstract dimension.
On First Fridays, a monthly Greensboro cultural night, I performed as Pierrot acting as a silent guide to this portal. Pierrot is my ongoing silent performance persona and exemplifies longing and naivety, a conduit for a greater connection to the universe. For the first half hour, I sat by the mattress, still covered by the entrance curtain, with visitors one-on-one and perform a short reiki session on them on a few of their chakras. After that, I performed The Silence Experiments, my ongoing interactive work exploring energies, silence and intimacy within a private space. I sit with people one-on-one under a sheet, and we look into each others’ eyes for an undefined length of time.
This project is partly inspired by my own journey dealing with anxiety, and The Tibetan Book of Living & Dying. The book is a hallmark manual with a transformative view on death- to contemplate ceaselessly on it, to view it with seriousness and humour, incorporating the belief that we all have the ability to pass into a better rebirth. In a similar sense, the objects repurposed for my work go through a rebirth.
Installation, 2015
Elsewhere, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA
Old cloth, machine-sewn and embroidered; old objects; soundscape
Soundscape
- Musical saw and sitar by Luther Bangert, recorded by Brooks Strause in Iowa City
- Bits of old songs and human breaths/sighs/whispers recorded by Ng Xi Jie at Elsewhere (featuring the human sounds of Jennie Carlisle, George Jenne, Ellis Anderson, Chris Cloud, Fhalyshia Orians, Coco Spadoni, Catherine Clark and Lottie Yost)
- Mixed by Ng Xi Jie
Special thanks to the above collaborators, Jennie Carlisle, Blair Bogin and Elsewhere
Listen to the soundscape here
With its extensive secondhand collection, Elsewhere is a world of lives and deaths unto itself, a kaleidoscopic universe of human history, consumption, romance and memory. The energies of old things can be nostalgic and melancholic, even overwhelming. And like the entire universe, Elsewhere’s collection (which, as a rule, never grows or diminishes) is a closed circuit of energy that can only transform within itself. This work is an exploration into the recycling of energies and its transformative possibilities to create a harmonisation zone.
Within the Elsewhere universe, the work is a portal to another cosmos underneath the messy first floor toy bin. Inside this small, dim, underutilised space, one finds an opportunity to meditate and recenter in a ritualistic environment. Accommodating a single body, one rests atop a blanket sewn with an imprint of a body and chakra wheels. The body outline is mapped to my own, creating a resonance between artist and visitor. Chakras are important energy centers in the body and affect our wellbeing on different levels. When blocked, energy cannot flow well through the body. The act of lying on the blanket represents a symbolic harmonization. The chakra wheels hand embroidered on corresponds to chakra colours and forms.
Two objects (an embellished golden hoop and a beaded vagina) from past Elsewhere resident XX’s work act as the sun and moon and represent the harmony of masculine and feminine energy (yin and yang). Looking up, one sees a constellation blanket with 7 chakra wheels represented by 7 round objects from the collection. Constellations made from old beads and embroidery were conceived from a numerological pattern; one of them represents Sylvia’s hat in the photo by the entrance.
When in the space, visitors put on headphones and are aurally transported to a cosmic realm where ethereal musical saw and sitar mix with intimate sounds of sighs, whispers and breathing from the lungs of Elsewhere staff and artists, as well as dreamy fragments of old songs from the collection’s records, played on the collection’s record player.
The entrance curtain is embroidered with the title of the work and ‘go under’ as a reference to the space’s past history as Underwater World. A display box at the ‘headboard’ of the mattress, visible when one is inside the installation, is lit up and installed with a peaceful array of items around a Buddha centerpiece. Some of the objects used to exist in Underwater World, like the flamingo. A stub reading TREASURES FROM THE SEA and an array of classy, mesmerising jewellery help imagine what Sylvia, the eccentric Elsewhere proprietor, might have adorned.
The cloths used were selected from the extensive Elsewhere fabric collection for their calming qualities, and washed (lots of dirt emerged). Objects that project a cleaner energy were used, and were selected from the archive through a process of intuition, then cleansed in salt water. All the cloths and materials were also cleansed with reiki before installation. Reiki is an energy practice that channels universal energy through the giver to the receiver, providing healing effects.
Overall, the work aims to help visitors harmonize themselves within a cosmic aesthetic that posits them as beings in an abstract dimension.
On First Fridays, a monthly Greensboro cultural night, I performed as Pierrot acting as a silent guide to this portal. Pierrot is my ongoing silent performance persona and exemplifies longing and naivety, a conduit for a greater connection to the universe. For the first half hour, I sat by the mattress, still covered by the entrance curtain, with visitors one-on-one and perform a short reiki session on them on a few of their chakras. After that, I performed The Silence Experiments, my ongoing interactive work exploring energies, silence and intimacy within a private space. I sit with people one-on-one under a sheet, and we look into each others’ eyes for an undefined length of time.
This project is partly inspired by my own journey dealing with anxiety, and The Tibetan Book of Living & Dying. The book is a hallmark manual with a transformative view on death- to contemplate ceaselessly on it, to view it with seriousness and humour, incorporating the belief that we all have the ability to pass into a better rebirth. In a similar sense, the objects repurposed for my work go through a rebirth.