My MFA thesis installation was an exploration of knowledge and growth in three forms – physical, spiritual, and intellectual.  For me, it represented a measurement of my position at the time as a female artist, in relation to these themes.  In the following paragraphs, I will provide a description of the installation and each of the five dioramas it contained.

The proportions of the room, 12’w x 18’l x 10’h, created an intimate interior space, physically separated from the surrounding gallery. The sense of physical separation  was increased by the 3’w x 3’d x 10’h portal into the installation –  designed to give the illusion of crossing into another world, or state of mind.The portal was framed by trees, moss, and flowers.  This provided visual relief from the stark whiteness of the outer walls, while allowing a glimpse of the room’s dimly lit interior.  The interior walls and ceiling of the room were painted/covered entirely in black with a 3” thick layer of coarse sand covering the floor.  Embedded in the sand, were five, two foot diameter, dome-covered dioramas.

The air within the installation was thick with dust and humidity.  There was a constant repetition of sound and light.  The former – a chorus of female scientists singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” in Latin- (Mica Mica Parva Stella), and the murmur of water in one of the domed environments.  The latter – projected video of myself costumed as the goddess Flora, and the ever-changing colors of fiber optic light in the central domed environment.

The choice of five domed environments and their placement within the room is loosely based on the Chinese cosmological theory of a central world tree or axis mundi, with four trees at the corners, holding aloft the canopy of heaven.  As far as the use of color is concerned within the installation – I took great liberties with the compass/color relationships of the Chinese system-  and did not follow them at all.  I merely used them as a reference point – allowing me to designate a predominant color for each of the environments, without adhering to the traditional placement of the colors in relation to the points on a compass.

The black diorama is centrally located in the room, and represents the axis mundi.  It is a self-maintaining machine containing all known elements, dispensed into four planetary incubation chambers – each of these small domes corresponds to the larger dome opposite it in the room.  This central dome is in itself, a reduced scale version of the entire installation – alluding to the overall theme of physical, spiritual, and intellectual growth.

The pink diorama represents physical growth.  It is a desert world composed of pink sand, iridescent pink rocks, pink flowers, and moss.  Two scientists sit in the sand, playing a card game with the elements – thus generating compounds.  The compounds held in the scientists’ hands are: Ca3(PO4)2 – calcium phosphate, NaCl – salt, and CO2 – carbon dioxide.  The remaining element cards are scattered among the rocks and sand.

The green diorama represents the creation of the compound H2O and its necessity for life and physical growth.  The goddesses’ feet are submerged in a circular pool of water, and they hold the element cards necessary to synthesize the compound – thus implying a cyclical nature to the process.  They are surrounded by green grass and moss, and their heads are covered with flowers.

The blue diorama represents intellectual growth.  It is composed of shimmering blue stalagmites with flower covered goddess heads growing in pots.  The heads are symbolic of knowledge, and their placement in pots indicates that they can only grow so far before it becomes necessary to break out of bounds.

The silver diorama represents spiritual or cosmological growth.  It depicts several scientists interacting with planetesimals (partially formed planets).  The video projected on the floor of this diorama depicts the goddess Flora being impregnated with the seeds and flowers of the elements and follows the gestation and delivery of a planetesimal through the three states of matter (gas, liquid, and solid).

Passing through the garden-like portal into the installation created the effect of being transported to another world or state of mind.  The proportion of human scale to the scale within the domed environments gave adults the sense of being giant, aloof observers – and children the sense of being more intimate participants in each of the fantasy worlds.  The level of detail experienced by each person depended on his/her willingness to get close to the domes and peer inside.  An important part of creating this installation was being able to observe people interacting with it.  Not everyone was willing to crouch in the sand, preferring instead to gaze down at the environments from a standing position.

Universe Box IV, 2006
Materials: wood, fiber optics, electronics, acrylic dome, fabric
Size: 2′ x 3′ x 3′
Collection: Artist

detail view

mica

Audio track of choir singing Mica Mica Parva Stella (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)

This piece was made for an experimental collaborative exhibition called PURE, which ran from Oct. 14 – Nov. 12, 2006.  Participating artists were asked to limit the color palette of their work to black, white, silver, and transparent.  I decided to recycle both the audio and the idea of a domed environment from my MFA Thesis exhibition.  The audio is a chorus singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in Latin (Mica Mica Parva Stella.)  I made a fiber optic star field inside a dome covered box, and provided a bench and headphones for viewers to sit and gaze down into the stars while listening to the chorus sing.

Towards, 2000
Materials: silver casting, flocked paper, acrylic, music box, wood
Size: 12″ x 12″ x 6″
Collection: Artist

detail of interior

musicbox
Audio of wind-up music box feature.

Turdus Migratorius Ovum, 1999
Materials: clay, fabric, acrylic, foam, nightlight, branch, wood
Size: 12″ x 12″ x 4″
Collection: Artist

Flood 3,  1998
Materials: resin, rocks, fish, wood
Size: 12″ x 8″ x 4.5″
Collection: Sold at auction

detail view

This piece represents stagnant flood water, rot, decay,  and the chaotic aftermath of flooding.  I made it after enduring 3 house/studio floods while living in a basement apartment in downtown Boston.

Universe Box III, 1994
Materials: papier mache, copper, mineral
samples, dragees, mirrors, glass, fabric, wood
Size: 12″ x 12″ x2″
Collection: Sold at auction

This piece is made using an old wooden cash register drawer as the housing for the scene.  The large compartment has a papier mache lunar landscape with a black and silver velvet star-field.  The five compartments on the left side each hold a different unidentified mineral sample inside a mirrored copper box.  The center bottom compartment holds a bottle of ether.  The bottom right compartment holds a stockpile of hydrogen atoms represented by silver cake decorations.

Women Astronomers, 1994
Materials: silver, paint, wood
Size: 9″ x 12″ x 9.5″
Collection: Artist (disassembled)

Parallel Universe, 1994
Materials: clay, beads, colored pencil, readymades, wood
Size: 12″ x 8″ x 2″
Collection: F. Claudy

Circle of Existence, 1993
Materials: clay, beads, fabric, ready-mades, wood
Size: 12″ x 8″ x 2″
Collection: D. Rodal

Empty Heart, 1994
Materials: clay, glass, plastic, fabric, wood
Size: 4″ x 5″ x 2″
Collection: Artist (disassembled)