MFA Final Installation Project

continuous

(ceaseless, endless, perpetual, cyclical, repetitive, recurrent, periodic)

durable

(lasting, enduring, persistent, steadfast, evergreen, permanent, long-lasting)

constant

(continual, steady, regular, unbroken)

My hands are cold and clumsy as I pull the white balls of seeds from the vine. “I should do this later in the day when it is warmer.” But I have the time right now. The seeds feel cold and slightly damp from frost. “I should do this later, after the sun has dried them out.” I keep picking, having developed a rhythm. But it is not the rhythm of Gershwin or African drums. It is not the rhythm of machinery. It is the natural rhythm of weeding a garden, weaving a basket, sharpening a knife or chopping wood. It is the cadence of countless quiet conversations in a large room. I continue plucking at this pace. My son says he has noticed that seeds up high are of better quality. I acknowledge his observation for I have discovered the same thing. “Is it necessary that we gather high quality seeds so I can hide them inside stuffed pillows?” No, it is not necessary. I continue to reach high for the “better” puffs of seed. I am compelled to do so.

Through my compulsions for gathering, processing and building I have created this installation. I have included poetry as text to give context. This exhibit holds a place that is in between that of single objects and what Robert Morris referred to as “mutable stuff.”¹

More significant than any object in the gallery is the collective meaning that is imparted because of the whole.

¹ “What art now has in its hands is mutable stuff which need not arrive at the point of being finalized with respect to either time or space … work as an irreversible process ending in a static icon-object no longer has relevance.” Robert Morris, “Notes on sculpture 4: Beyond Objects,” Artforum (April 1969): 50-4.