Video documentation of installation provied by the Conduit Gallery, Minneapolis.
7 Meals, 2010
“There are seven meals between civilization and anarchy.” -- Unknown
This installation is a response to the broad notions of hunger. I was inspired by the great disparity between those with plenty and those who go hungry—among people in our own city and within communities in different corners of the world. I also felt compelled by life itself, hanging in such delicate and impermanent balance.
Bringing these thoughts and emotions to physical form, for me, starts by sitting at a sewing machine. Sewing is common across cultures, connecting materials for protection, decoration and comfort. It reconnects that which has been broken or torn—it’s an act of repair, of making something whole again, or new for the first time. The very act of sewing is also a metaphor of possibility. The individual patterns are intentionally ambiguous—perhaps one is a starfish or a neuron, one might be a heart or it could be a brain, another a tree or a rib cage.
Drawing on the wall speaks to me of cave drawings from thousands of years ago, giving us clues to what lives might have been like, but no clear truth. The marks also provide a visual map to considerations about my concerns. There are no direct routes—no single correct way to view it. We reach dead ends, we get confused, but it is a journey we must pursue.