Statement
Ve-uews: 2012-2015
My first NEPO piece was called Ve-uews and was made because I needed a non-verbal connection to others after the sudden death of my dad. I really needed to connect with people by holding their hands and looking in their eyes. I sat behind a structure that looked like a fence and gazed and held hands for 6 hours. I gazed at people as long as they could hold their concentration. So many emotions were expressed through the eyes and the hands. I learned how powerful non-verbal communication through eye contact and hand holding was and really wanted others to experience something similar.
The second NEPO piece was inspired by the experience I had as a performer in the first piece. The second year I created Ve-uews: A Peepshow which explored the ideas of the exoticising of hands “making” juxtaposed by the hands of factory workers and voyeurism. I created a structure that looked like a circus tent and I asked volunteers to sit inside of it only exposing their hands. They were asked create a repetitive ritual of making with the materials I provided for them (string, fabric, clay, etc.) I learned that the women’s hands were always objectified and sexualized no matter what structure I provide for them.
The third NEPO piece called Ve-uews: crafty Syence was inspired by the book The Many Headed Hydra, which tells stories of radical women who healed others through herbs. I related histories of these women to women artists own histories and the demonization and witch hunts that were related to organized religion. I created three confession booths and I asked volunteers to sit inside as the priest. I asked volunteers to hold hands with the viewers and make a connection with them and then draw their soul on a lanyard. This was the first time I made the viewer do work by kneeling before the women artists.
My first NEPO piece was called Ve-uews and was made because I needed a non-verbal connection to others after the sudden death of my dad. I really needed to connect with people by holding their hands and looking in their eyes. I sat behind a structure that looked like a fence and gazed and held hands for 6 hours. I gazed at people as long as they could hold their concentration. So many emotions were expressed through the eyes and the hands. I learned how powerful non-verbal communication through eye contact and hand holding was and really wanted others to experience something similar.
The second NEPO piece was inspired by the experience I had as a performer in the first piece. The second year I created Ve-uews: A Peepshow which explored the ideas of the exoticising of hands “making” juxtaposed by the hands of factory workers and voyeurism. I created a structure that looked like a circus tent and I asked volunteers to sit inside of it only exposing their hands. They were asked create a repetitive ritual of making with the materials I provided for them (string, fabric, clay, etc.) I learned that the women’s hands were always objectified and sexualized no matter what structure I provide for them.
The third NEPO piece called Ve-uews: crafty Syence was inspired by the book The Many Headed Hydra, which tells stories of radical women who healed others through herbs. I related histories of these women to women artists own histories and the demonization and witch hunts that were related to organized religion. I created three confession booths and I asked volunteers to sit inside as the priest. I asked volunteers to hold hands with the viewers and make a connection with them and then draw their soul on a lanyard. This was the first time I made the viewer do work by kneeling before the women artists.
My last piece in this series was called Ve-uews: (w)Holes and addressed holes, making holes, mending holes and having holes (as women.) The impetus for this piece comes from a lot of different places: grandmothers that mend clothing, self-harm and cutting, suturing wounds and the politics of wounds, red light districts and the sexualization of the physical holes women possess. I asked volunteers to teacher the viewers how to sew, sutture of mend a piece of fabric coated in latex. I was interested in learning, through the performers about how these ideas are constantly crossing over and under each other revealing the vulnerability, malleability and sexualization of openings.
It is my hope that these performances have pointed towards how, as women, we may engage an audience in our exploration of gaps, and how, as a community, we may come together as a “whole”.
It is my hope that these performances have pointed towards how, as women, we may engage an audience in our exploration of gaps, and how, as a community, we may come together as a “whole”.
Ve-uews: A Peepshow
2013
Ben von Wildenhaus played a westernized version of belly dancing music from the 1960's and 70's on top of a "stage" made of pallets, photocopied images and cardboard. He would stop during his 6 hour performance as a factory manager/creepy DJ at a strip-joint to conversing with walkers, making them feel uncomfortable about watching the hands, or make them turn back and spend time watching the hands. He recorded his music on a tape recorder and passed the tapes to walkers to deliver to the tent. At the tent we had 2 tape recorders that were constantly playing and layer his prerecorded sounds with the live version.
Ve-uews: A Peepshow
2013
I needed 20 women to sit for one hour and "make." Viewers and walkers werel not be able to see the performers, only their hands. The single sided mirror allowed the performers to see the viewers and the viewers to only see themselves. Because we no longer know how anything we own is made or created, there is a magic and also a grotesqueness to watching.
Ve-uews: A Peepshow
2013
Each window had materials such as:
Window 1: a beet, pearl tipped pins, vaseline, and a wood carver
Window 2: clay, buttons, needle and thread, flocking
Window 3: butter, palette knife, paper, black ink and wool yarn
Window 4: glycerin block, pearls, needle and thread
Window 5: black leather, scissors, Made In China tags, white ink pad
Window 1: a beet, pearl tipped pins, vaseline, and a wood carver
Window 2: clay, buttons, needle and thread, flocking
Window 3: butter, palette knife, paper, black ink and wool yarn
Window 4: glycerin block, pearls, needle and thread
Window 5: black leather, scissors, Made In China tags, white ink pad
Ve-uews
Ve-uews
2012
The images were printed on transparent vellum. The same image is layered twice on top of each other and flipped so that it created symmetry, then was sandwiched between two layers of cardboard. I put a hole in the corner of each frame and attached a piece of yarn so people that walked could wear them.