In a year past, Denice and I took a road trip down the Mississippi River with Memphis as our eventual goal. We came across a place that has haunted both of us since we were there: a graveyard of children. Our speculation was that there might have been a plague (perhaps the Spanish flu?) that would require a community to mourn the loss of some many young children.
It also was a reminder of how hard it was in years' past to raise a family; many families loss young people as they tried to establish their family. As this piece came together, because of the photographs I selected, it came to me that would be theme of this work.
Previously I had used a chair as a substrate which in my world means I buy all the appropriate cheap chairs I can find with the hopes of finding another reason to use this form.
The first pairing in this assemblage was the large family photograph I had with a wooden folding chair from my stash.
I had another item in my stash that I wanted to work with as a substrate. While I probably would have worked on its own, I decided that it felt "vintage" enough to fit the time period of the photos that I wanted to use. I disassembled the banjo and got rid of the skin so that I could use the interior as a niche.
Lately, for whatever reason, I have fallen in love with using resin.
Just a few days ago I visited my friend Robin who gifted me this wire form that works as branches. While looking for something circular to put behind the upper part of this chair, it occurred to me that it would work better here.
The banjo got re-strung with linen thread.
Thus we have, A Quarantine of Cultivated Silence. The title comes from the poem Installation by Monica Youn. It is 36"H X 18"W X 9"D. It consists of a Folding Chair, Banjo, Photographs (6), Decorative Plastic Frame, Wire Tree Form, Metal Findings (2), Clock Face, Beads, Resin, Linen Thread, Paper and Paint.
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