GRIEF BODY SEMIOTICS
SOLO EXHIBITION
2023
ABOUT
Grief Body Semiotics is an exhibition of new works offering a meditation on grief, the body, and the landscape. Developed in the aftermath of my father’s passing in 2019, the featured works investigate the ways both the human body and planetary bodies preserve memories of life after death – the body, in the way it stores and expresses grief, and planetary bodies, in the way they preserve history in fossils and in chemical signatures. Rendered through the lens of intersecting Hindu spirituality with emerging technology, the new works have been developed as a contemplative and self-reflexive study of grief in motion. At the center of the exhibition lies a 3D-printed, cured resin sculpture that simulates the visceral qualities of muscle tissue and the structure of exoskeletons, visualizing how grief “marks” or shapes the body following the loss of a loved one. Surrounding the sculpture are drawings that adapt antique geological drafting methods to analyze ghost pains and injuries that emerge in bereavement; collage and text works that utilize NASA’s topographic maps; and one of the five Geology of Longing dance films in which I visit sites studied by my father in his career as a geologist. The new works are ultimately an attempt to connect with my father, his writing, and his geological research methods as I attempt to navigate the world without him.
Solo exhibition at Drew University (Madison, NJ) as a part of the Artist-in-Residence program for the Fall semester, 2023.
Curated by Assistant Professor of Digital Media, Ryan Woodring.
Interview
Interview, cinematography, and editing by Cat Maida, Drew University (2023).
images
On the wall: Feelings, Fossilized (Series of Drawings)
Works on paper (2023).
On the ground: Breathing Sideways
Sculpture 3D-printed in resin and flanked by dried jasmine flowers (2023).
Projected: This Porous Earth
Dance-on-film (Run time, 11:47).
Directed and choreographed by Smita Sen.
Director of Photography, Carol Nuñez.
Original score by Dion Kerr.
One of the five Geology of Longing dance films. Produced with support from Oolite Arts (2023).
Breathing Sideways
Sculpture 3D-modeled in software and printed in clear resin.
10” in length.
Part of the Feelings, Fossilized sculpture series.
2023
Feelings, Fossilized (Series of Drawings)
Graphite and watercolor on paper.
30” x 23”
Drawings of sculptures.
From left to right: Feelings, Fossilized #2, #1, and #3.
2023
Feelings, Fossilized #1
Graphite and watercolor on paper.
30” x 23”
Drawing of sculpture, Breathing Sideways.
2023
On the wall: Geology of Longing (Series of collage works), Body Drawings, and Geology of Longing: Movement Scores.
Installed as temporary paper ephemera (2015-2020).
On the ground: Breathing Sideways
Sculpture 3D-printed in resin and flanked by dried jasmine flowers (2023).
On the wall: Geology of Longing (Series of collage works), Body Drawings, and Geology of Longing: Movement Scores.
Installed as temporary paper ephemera (2015-2020).
On the pedestal: Grief Body Semiotics: Movement Objects 1-3.
Ceramic sculptures.
4”, 6”, and 7” in length.
2023
Exhibition photography by Cat Maida (2023).