Resonated Detachment, 2006, eggshell installation collaboration with community. Image of eggshells drying in my basement.
In 2006 I began collecting eggshells everyday from friends, family, and strangers. Sometimes I would drive around town to pick them up, other times I would come home and find them on my front porch. During this time in my life I felt as though many things were falling apart and I had to walk on eggshells to avoid destruction. Then I decided to embrace the destruction. I covered a gallery floor of about 1,000 square feet with these eggshells that were touched by hundreds of people. The egg and the shell have a great amount of connotations and symbolism such as life, birth, transformation, delicacy. The installation was an invitation to embrace the destruction and invite others to transform the work just as others had helped create it. The work was mistaken for vandalism and was cleaned up before the reception began the night of the opening.
My process of piecing and the detachment necessary for rebuilding is parallel to my life. The exhibition was a romanticized ode to the state of flux that we all endure. Nothing is stable and real because everything is always changing, moving, growing, or falling apart. To walk within this gallery, the viewer becomes part of the work. It is necessary for you to be aware of the piece because you transform it. The show changes with each step. Destruction is necessary for the exploration. These creations embrace the paramount transient.
Resonated Detachment, 2006, eggshell installation collaboration with community. Image of installation at Elements of Art Gallery, Columbus, Ohio. Eggshells covered 1,000 square feet of gallery floor.
During this time in my life I felt as though many things were falling apart and I had to walk on eggshells to avoid destruction. Then I decided to embrace the destruction. I covered a gallery floor of about 1,000 square feet with these eggshells that were touched by hundreds of people. The egg and the shell have a great amount of connotations and symbolism such as life, birth, transformation, delicacy. The installation was an invitation to embrace the destruction and invite others to transform the work just as others had helped create it. The work was mistaken for vandalism and was cleaned up before the reception began the night of the opening.
Since the exhibition about the destruction was destroyed (mistaken for vandalism and cleaned up off the gallery floor one hour before the reception by the custodian), I never stopped collecting eggshells. The collaboration continued… from 2006 - 2013, eggshells were then taken to Mildred’s Lane, an artist project by J. Morgan Puett and Mark Dion on the boarder of upstate New York and Pennsylvania. With other artists we laid the shells around the fire we built to “finish” the piece and go from “walking” to “dancing on eggshells”.
Since the exhibition about the destruction was destroyed (mistaken for vandalism and cleaned up off the gallery floor one hour before the reception by the custodian), I never stopped collecting eggshells. The collaboration continued… from 2006 - 2013, eggshells were then taken to Mildred’s Lane, an artist project by J. Morgan Puett and Mark Dion on the boarder of upstate New York and Pennsylvania. With other artists we laid the shells around the fire we built to “finish” the piece and go from “walking” to “dancing on eggshells”.
Since the exhibition about the destruction was destroyed (mistaken for vandalism and cleaned up off the gallery floor one hour before the reception by the custodian), I never stopped collecting eggshells. The collaboration continued… from 2006 - 2013, eggshells were then taken to Mildred’s Lane, an artist project by J. Morgan Puett and Mark Dion on the boarder of upstate New York and Pennsylvania. With other artists we laid the shells around the fire we built to “finish” the piece and go from “walking” to “dancing on eggshells”.
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