HINDSIGHT
CELIA ANDERSON • ELIZABETH ARZANI • HOLLY BORUCK • RON BROWN • PENELOPE CALDWELL • MATTHEW COTE • DONALD DAHLKE • KAY DANLEY • MARTIN DUNN • ANDREA FORTUNOFF • VALERIE GHOUSSAINI •JIBRIL HAMMOND • P. HANSON • GINA HERRERA • PAULINE HUDEL • ANGIE HUFFMAN • DIANE JACOBS • STEPHEN KARAKASHIAN • BETH KERSCHEN • SARAH MARTIN • FLORENCE ALFANO MCEWIN • IVAN PAZLAMATCHEV • CANDACE PRATT • PATRICIA SHAW • ALLAN TEGER • HELENA DUPRE THOMPSON • MARGARET WHITING • KATIE WINSTON
Through the month of January I am exhibiting new work in a virtual group exhibition, Hindsight, hosted by Gallery 114 .
Trying to learn new languages in my thirties made me question more than just my terrible French accent. Miscommunications or finding failure in language exist in my own mother tongue. I find them in my internal dialogue, private conversations I have with others and in my daily surroundings. I hear them talking on top of each other, accompanying my everyday routines, sitting with me in grief and in the varying weights of holding something(s) you can’t always see, but feel deeply.
And yet, I still reach out to language. I turn to it when I can’t sleep, surprised that words show up at all. I hug them, and lovingly arrange them, like how some people fuss over trying to decorate a room. I wish that they were people and that these rooms weren’t empty. In my disappointment, I cut and crop my words like taking apart furniture, piece by piece, wrapping it to fit neatly in a box in hopes that it will be transported safely. Boxes pile up and so do a stack of words. I wonder how much they weigh?