I am holding up a large photo of me holding up a small quilt work in a greenhouse. The filigree and fireplace in the gallery can be seen behind me. I am holding a drawing of a quilt pattern in front of my face, two large quilted works hang behind me, one quilt on the floor in front of me. [photo taken by Eamonn] gallery view: morning light with spider plants, collapsible traffic cone, and three sewn wall works Griffin investigates the accumulation table in afternoon light. They are recalling all the ways they made the marbles into planets when they were younger. wall work and floor work [making space for Eamonn]

PATTERN ///ACCUMULATION /// PATTERN

Illini Union Gallery, June 6 to July 7, 2024

The exhibition was a chance to create a space that contained my work, create a response to the physical aspects of the gallery, create an invitation as a way to share space and be in conversation with others in my community and enact care through the ritual of tending to the plants that have been part of my studio practice for the past four years. Every week during the run of this exhibition, I came to water the plants in the gallery. Each time visiting the gallery was marked with an intervention of taking a quilt or cone selfie in the space. Artists that I shared space with were: Colleen Abel, Eamonn Abel,  Griffin Abel, Ishita Dharap, Grey Dey, Lori Fuller, Cassandra Smith, Rachel Yan Gu, Jorge Lucero, Paulina Camacho Valencia, Tim Fox, Lilah  Leopold, samantha shoppell,  Kaleb Ostraff, collective participants from ARTE591–Grad Community Forum, and a collaborative work done with a 5th grade student from Booker T. Washington Elementary.

 

large spider plant in a large fused plastic planter, I am standing behind clipping arial plants.   nine fused plastic planters with new plants

LEARNING AS SITE OF_ POSSIBILITY_ INVITATION_ PERMISSION_ BEGINNING_ BEGINNING_ BEGINNING_, 2021

spider plant (two varieties), container/flower pot made from fused plastics, dirt, a pair of scissors, nine transports, invitation (photo of me in classroom with spider plant taken by Natalia Espinel)

a large fused plastic quilt placed in a parking lot.  a detail of the quilt placed in a classroom, me crouched next to it

LOOKFORPATTERN: PARKINGLOTPATTERN QUILT, 2021

Fused plastic from collected shopping bags, packing plastics, shipping materials, plastic bags for wrapping newspapers. The backing is a tyvek sheet and a large tan plastic lumber bag. The tyvek sheet might have held lumber at some point; it was wrapped around a street pole when I found it on 4th street near a construction site. Approximately 10.5 feet x 10.5 feet

front and back views, hanging on a hanger against a gray wall

WHAT IDENTITIES DO I CARRY (front and back views), 2021

accumulated fused plastic: from shipping packaging and protective shipping plastic, food packaging, shopping bags; flagging tape, thread & machine stitching. Size: adult small, constructed after a dissected t-shirt I have owned for over 10 years

left hand: a clear globe prism; right hand: a soft sewn globe prism IMG_2188 IMG_2208

SOFT SEWN CRYSTALS, 2022

One globe prism, Nine hand held soft sculptures and a velvet lined Community Plate silverware box. The sewn prisms are made with printed and fused plastic and machine stitching. Each crystal form contains documentation of experiences by myself or others. Together they act as a collage document to help understand the soft boundaries related to and needed for collaboration.