A Held Breath
2024
Exhibition Statement
A Held Breath is a video installation and state of in-between. It marks the threshold between holding and releasing. This exhibition features large-scale projections and small-scale screens enshrined within sculptural objects. I put myself on display at vacillating scales, offering moments of both revelation and concealment. The body is fragmented into glimpses of a mouth, a head, hands, and flesh. These segmented aspects allow the viewer to consume my image one bite at a time. My small screens invite the viewer to get close to my captured image thereby fostering a sense of intimacy. In addition, my large-scale projections allow my audience to take a step back as the human body is presented as larger than life. The shift between large and small scales offers both a decisive claim of space and an expression of vulnerability as I ask the viewer to carefully examine my presented self.
In my video performances, I dually present myself through two personas, a pared-down reflection of reality and a silver-skinned version. These two presented images work in tandem to consider the past and possible future, searching for both understanding and feeling of alienation. My continuously looped performances are filled with both tension and tenderness. I interact with my body and objects with a level of care as I gently hold myself and my extensions. I complicate this by having moments of friction such as breaking a fragile eggshell or pulling on external forces. In these moments of unease, I move between the grotesque and alluring to both invite in and push away. I toe the line between the desire to be seen, understood, and cared for with the need to protect myself and hide away insecurities.
My objects and videos are reflections of this tightrope as I conceal unsightly infrastructure like cords and outlets with effervescent fabrics and structures. Even when presenting uncomfortable images of running fingers along bared teeth and spitting pearls back at myself, I do so in the context of glitter and glam. It is a controlled sense of vulnerability as I offer myself conditionally. A Held Breath resides in this uneasy interstice of knowing and unknowing yourself. My work is a gentle destabilization as I push against the edges of expectations and search for resolution.
