Indefinite States of Emergency

Exhibition at the Washington Printmakers Gallery, January 2009.

Indefinite States of Emergency develops personal and iconic identity with a modern-day “mudra” or movement. It attempts to show that we are the product of our environment and not able to see beyond habits and the impact of social/political conventions so deeply rooted inside us. If we can see beyond them we need first to free ourselves from the normal way we interpret facts. The hand-printed images in the exhibition shows an innocent young girl multiplied 3 times in movement - bending over and stretching out with six tiny hands reaching over the earth. Every time she touches the ground another a meaningful or horrific realization is just under the surface of her hands. I have used my own digital image, full-scale and in a group, to portray the “reps” I/we do daily and in a lifetime- whether by choice or labor. While in movement we draw out our inability to clear the debris left by us (humanity), and to make change. I am still considering why this movement has become so important to me, but certainly because our backs are “virtually” laden as a population at this time. The titles of the digital movements refer to endangerment, genocide, terrorism, and surveillance. The images themselves reference MRI’s, the birthing canal, explosions and bombs. Ultimately they also explain a ritual of bowing down to that before and inside us.

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