PARA(SITE)DISE is an installation formed from cyanotype prints of weeds pulled out of my garden.
It makes visible the labor required to maintain a kind of homeostasis and hold the weeds at bay. This labor maintains is a beautiful work, but ultimately can overtake and overshadow someone’s time and mental space—much like the labor of healing form illness. As the document of this invisible labor grows, it overtakes and overshadows its surroundings.
Para(site)dise, on view at Samford University for Filtered Through, 2024.
This work was exhibited at EAT/ART space for the Tennessee Triennial — Within Normal Limits included a community panel discussion on illness.
Para(site)dise, on view at EAT/ART space for the exhibit Within Normal Limits, 2023.
Para(site)dise, detail.
EAT/ART space is honored to host community voices to speak about the Tennessee Triennial's theme of RE-PAIR as it relates to healing. Panelists are responding to the work of curator and artist Jocelyn Mathewes. Within Normal Limits shares an investigation into the symptoms and effects of chronic illness, its related treatments and medical procedures, and their effects the psyche and body. A variety of mediums intermingle in much the way that medication, physical symptoms, and mental health do.