Undoings-Existents

Our collaborative studio practice is an exploration of our inherent divine energy, our female identity in relation to the larger social constructs, and how these can inform our connections to the Earth to create a deeper feeling of groundedness.

Together, we explore the dynamics and tensions of femininity and female relationships through our roles in relationship with one another. In different moments, we may relate to each other as sisters, lovers, friends, mothers, wives, or witches. The work develops within a constantly shifting, non-hierarchical relationship, in which we are mutually committed to each other, and we are both the teacher and the student for the other.

We find that ritualized activities help one slow down and explore a deeper awareness of their surroundings. Rituals such as gathering water, communing on the lake, observing the lunar cycle, yoga, hiking, tea time, meditation, drinking, meal preparation and eating, gathering, and gardening are incorporated into the rhythm of our studio practice. Through these rituals, we feel more grounded as we become forced to pause, observe our surroundings, check-in with ourselves, and prioritize our own existence and well being.

Together we attempt to reclaim our ancient birthright as descendants of Mother Earth and bearers of life. By reconnecting with the land and the life cycle, we are honoring the matriarchal power structure rooted in respect for the women’s ability to create and sustain life.  By growing and gathering materials to be used in the creation of new artworks, we imbue those materials with an additional purposeful cycle.

The process-oriented tasks of mixing pigments from plants and minerals and the planting of seeds cultivate a transformation into tangible evidence of our connectivity to the Earth.  Providing for our needs through our own sustainable labor is a physical representation of these unseen spiritual connections and continuity of life.

We are hyper aware of our sense of self in place, and the particular social and environmental aspects of the South, specifically Atlanta, that inform our identities. Intersectional discussions of race, socio-economic conditions, and sexual identity, and how the politics of these issues are handled within our home city, are necessary are necessary and unavoidable influences that define our identity within social constructs. Frustrations with these social issues, and experiences of marginalization and misogyny, are at the root of our mark-making and gestural actionism. These are balanced by abstract expressions inspired by the elements, natural influences, organic patterns, and explorations of individual memories and dreamscapes. Expressions of our sexual energy provide an escape from patriarchal social constructs and expectations for female sexuality, arising independently from divine feminine energy, and in spite of, male influences.

We explore how these specifics of place have informed our personal identities, question and counter them, in ways that allow for us to be more than a product of our surrounding environment, while using that environment as a source of new production.