Abstract:
Through the mediums of screen print and performance video installation, this body of work examines the impossibly transient and fleeting experience of ‘presence’.
The project fundamentally explores embodiment; specifically, the loss of one’s self in music. In particular, I emphasize music’s transformative potential, while simultaneously reflecting on the impossibility of translating the immersive musical experiences of listening, performing, and dancing into words.
My work suggests that while a sense of ‘transcendence’ through music can be acknowledged in its retrospective articulation, this is, paradoxically, the moment of its loss. Because the ecstatic experience of music is so fully encompassing, there is no ‘transcendence’ beyond that exact moment of immersion, that trance-like state, that ‘truce’ with reality.
This body of work has developed into a contemporary critique – as well as a celebration – of society, critiquing our disconnection and ‘dis’-embodied, digitized selves, while celebrating those moments when we experience the full and thrilling embodiment of being alive. Weaving observations of modern culture with autobiographical experience, I have created artworks that capture transient moments in musical encounters, reminding us of our ability to truly ‘feel’ and ‘be’ in our fast-paced world.