Ready or Not

Ready or Not
Solo Exhibition, Runyan Gallery, Newport, Oregon

February 3 – March 7, 2017

Evacuation routes and preparedness sirens and drills. Ready or Not is a collection of sculptural works made to navigate specific environments in order to explore notions of home, and perceptions of safety. All pieces constructed between 2015-2016.

What do I need to survive? What do I need to feel safe? I have been using the house as a metaphor, the home and how it relates to notions of security and safety. I want to live in a way of safety yet acknowledge that home is not always a place of security, that at times by embracing fear and taking risks I find meaningful ways to live in a place.

I think about the importance of place, geographical place, and how place specific conversations translate through my work. It was important for me to show my current body of work on the coast so I could have a direct conversation with others who live alongside the ocean. I have been exploring my feelings regarding what it is like to live in a place of tides and tsunamis, where land is not always land, sometimes it is water. What is it like to live in a place of test sirens, preparedness drills, evacuation routes, and grab and go kits? This situation is specific to the coast but through this conversation it is my hope to also speak about general or potentially universal survival mechanisms that humans might use to get through hard times or live in a place of fear.

My wish for myself is to be able to be flexible, adaptive and resourceful and to live in a way of grace with my environment and the people around me. I hope in my personal story to somehow connect to others via something universal.