"These bones, these rocks, this ocean. A triadic altar to the past."

A table and shelf installation mock up.

Family slides from a flea market in Cornwall depicting a couples holiday from long ago, show beautiful landscapes, rocks, and echo a sense of curiosity and love for nature. Combined with my own x-rays from medical examinations, their contrast is apparent and yet they connect in the plastic material of the x-rays, slides and transparencies - a material that feels highly processed and the content is deeply personal, testaments of memories and anatomy.

The little table and shelf installation also has small rolled up scrolls for people to take away. Printed inside is a poem, A Soul Mate Premise, by Russ Ligtas, words that speak of the familiar, the most intimate details one knows only about a few people. This poem asks questions, uncertainty sits next to the factual nature of x-rays and photographs that document a moment.

The idea is for the human to be present and absent and the mundane glorified by lit candles reminiscent of an altar. The X-rays act as candle holders, and an existing one is decorated so as to bring out the content of the images like stained glass windows.

I simple and very low-fi experiment, a work-in-progress in combining 3 things that are deeply personal, from 3 separate sources, in 3 separate forms, with 3 separate purposes and from 3 separate countries.

The Soul Mate Premise by Russ Ligtas

How long has it been, brother—

sister

lover

mother

father

teacher

uncle

partner

who knows what we have been

now—friend?

And it would seem 

there is no truth

since everything was and will be is

then everything is.

Therefore,

who are you now?

Is it your face

your language

the delicacy of your hands

and howmine can crush them

or protect them—

are they here

to do that?

To the who 

that is you?

For you have always been a who

and now and now and now—

a name

now

fingers

now

hair

now

smell

now

height

now

feet

now

laughter

now

voice

now

hearts

now

eyes

now soul

now soul

now soul

and I am here with you,

the who that was you

is you—now

Who are you now?

And are we, finally,

finally we to do what?

And to know—

this

unfamiliar

unloneliness

after time

after age

after place

after space

after blood and wounds and war

and sex and peace and love and art

and death after life after death after life

after death

and this 

all this

to know what?

To understand?

To reconsider?

To evolve?

Or to just be?

To love?

To explore?

To rearrange?

Or to just be?

To doubt?

To fear?

To hesitate?

Or to just be?

and to be here

and to be now

and to look out

with both our minds

this time, together!

names 

called out

together

fingers

crossed

together

hair

grown

together

smell

experience

together

height

of existence

together

feet

march

together

laughter

loud

together

voices

sing

together

hearts

proud

together

eyes

see

together

souls

mate

together

souls

fight

souls

be

together

you together

me together

be

perhaps

just

be

For haven't we always,

haven't we always

always

been?

Photo credit 1-6: Se Ve

Photo credit 7: Anderson Muth

Photo credit 8-26: Courtesy of the artist