The Remaining, Mourn | group exhibition | Northern Illinois Art Museum | Summer 2023
Mater's Matrix / Northern Illinois Art Museum / Dekalb, IL / 2023
"Mater's Matrix" installation explores themes of birth, death, and rebirth, which I envision as an interconnected matrix. Delving into the etymology of "mater" (mother) and "matrix" (womb), I am inspired by those two word's Latin origins, where they signify a space from which new life emerges and develops.
Using my grandmother's tablecloths and doilies, printing and collaging them into paper latticework, I create body coverings and safeguards that become integral to my performances. The emerging symbolism of labyrinths, representing healing, or repurposed wilted flowers as offerings to a shrine, aspire to evoke a sense of cyclical renewal amidst the interconnected matrix of life, in which new possibilities emerge from what was once considered lost.
*Images by Amy Shelton