Passages: Tales of the (Snow) Migrant was at the Burton D. Morgan Gallery at the College of Wooster (OH)
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Thank you to the Ohio Arts Council for the Individual Excellence Award for this work!
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My current work is focused on the relationship between migration and climate change. It is prompted by two journeys. The first was to southern Chile, where I had the opportunity as an artist-in-residence to explore an ecological preserve and also fly over Cape Horn. I worked in the presence of ecologists and climatologists, who left southern Chile for expeditions to Antarctica. They spoke often about the melting ice pack causing water levels around the earth to rise. The other sojourn was a three month stay in Rome, Italy. Envisioning the migrant path into Europe was a daily reality, as migrants sold wares on the streets and stories of deaths during crossings of the Mediterranean were prevalent in the news. These two experiences have come together in this work. It combines concerns about the ever-present climate emergency with a focus on the human cost of that devastation. Through it
I hope we will consider the human migrant and the migrating climate with empathy and action. There are several manifestations of this project: an installation entitled The (Snow) Migrant (at the Gund Gallery, Gambier, OH in 2023), and an extension of this installation called Passages: Tales of the (Snow) Migrant (at the Burton D. Morgan Gallery at the College of Wooster in 2024.) It also includes a short independent film, a filmic installation, video scenography for dance and layered photo light boxes. Together these pieces are focused on a migrant’s dangerous movement through time and space, embracing the arduous journey physically and emotionally and finding a way through no way.
Passages: Tales of the (Snow) Migrant, emphasizes the perils encountered on the migrant journey over water. Hollow boat forms are suspended near piles of sandbags, their swaying shadows drawn on the gallery floor, skeletons of migrant passages. The downward video projection from The (Snow) Migrant remains, offering a dreamlike narrative where a character uses gesture and metaphor to navigate a frozen but melting world. A simple kayak is her insufficient transportation while an animated life preserver floats around her over the sandbags and around the gallery walls. The (Snow) Migrant (at the Gund) offers side commentary via videos embedded in the protective sandbags around the central oculus projection. They show individual explorations and awareness of the earth, the shore, and surveillance of these experiences.
The performer in the video is Balinda Craig-Quijada, with whom I share concerns about the perils that migrants face. She is featured in the installation film, the independent experimental film and the photo light boxes. She also created and directed the choreographic work for dancers (Snow Migrations) at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA and Kenyon College, Gambier, OH. My video scenography for the performance includes parts of the film imagery and additional geographic and poetic elements. The music for the dance project is by Charlotte Malin and in the film and installation it is amplified by audio from various bodies of water that I have recorded , from the Indian Ocean to the Southern Atlantic to the Mediterranean Sea.