Close Your Eyes, Open Your Hand (2024)
Weeds collected on site, portable field recorder, iPhone, my father’s speakers, fiberglass, Portland Cement, steel
Through a process of ritual and site-return, I walked the same path to visit a specific clearing in the Lower Grotto Lake. On site, I planted my feet in the same spot, took a five-minute field recording on a Sony Portable Field Recorder, and captured and shared an image from the same clearing with no context on social media.
In a sculptural recounting of this ritual, two perpendicular cement slabs, injected with wax-encased weeds from the site itself, hold speakers facing directly at one another with space for an individual to listen. From in between the speakers, the sound allows a singular viewer to be isolated in a crowded room, transported to the site as they listen closely to the unedited sequential score of field recordings.
This piece questions the ability to foster a relationship with a site, mirroring that of intrapersonal dynamics as we grow tired of one another, fall in love with, come back for, and be present with (even when we are taken away from who we love).
