Feelings, Fossilized

 Feelings, fossilized

drawings & sculptures

2022-2023

ABOUT
“…the hip pain shows up like a physical reminder, an anchor, an intrusive xenolith or even a fossil weighing my body down and reminding me of the grief I carry” (Excerpt from my research diary, 2022).

Working in the theory and praxis of narrative medicine, I began the Feelings, Fossilized series in an attempt to visualize injuries, pain, and ailments that emerged during my grieving process. In creating this series, I used 3D-modeling software and somatic movement studies to examine the injuries and ‘ghost pains’ that developed in connection to my father’s illness and subsequent passing. These studies culminated in five sculptures and five drawings. In observing the way grief had taken shape in my body, each sculpture was imagined as an honorific object in conversation with Hindu-Buddhist iconography. Wrought with the visceral qualities of muscle tissue and the structure of exoskeletons preserved in paleozoic rock, the Feelings, Fossilized sculptures are a way of honoring the scope of grief and its marks on the body, comparing geological formations to internal trauma. The drawings of each sculpture adapt antique geological drafting methods to analyze and reflect holistically on my relationship to these ‘ghost pains.’

Feelings, Fossilized works were developed during the Summer Open residency at the Bakehouse Arts Complex (2022 & 2023).

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