Figures 31(a)-31(c). Mother Bones. Lyona (Bellsus) culture; c. 55,000 - 40,000 BCE. (Lower Gravis region, eastern Ourine).
Plaster, pigment
2020
Dimensions vary; heights range from 8.75" to 16.25"
This series deals with the coping mechanisms and other inner workings that take place during absence, be it an absence of estrangement, emotional withdrawal, death, or another kind of loss. The title, The Doubling Woods, speaks to the madness of grief, and to the magical thinking of it -- the way our minds keep trying to pick up these things that we can now suddenly only do so much with in the absence of the other person. Our relationship with them continues, but the mutuality of it is not the same. There is silence on the other end of the line. A particular kind of hysteria begins to crop up.
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Additionally, this work engages with the connection between loss and ferality. There are traumas, and aspects of trauma, that are less palatable or digestible to our collective culture. We see how loss and instability can push us closer to the outskirts of shared society, to a place that doubles on itself, a position that snowballs and multiplies. In that space, we become akin to feral children.