A Net, A Nest, The Things We've Carried
A Net, A Nest, The Things We Carried
A Collaboration with Rychèl Thérin
A Net, A Nest, The Things We Carried, 2022. A blanket Monica made for her mom, birchwood hoops, chain and banana fiber from Monica’s MA project, copper wire and wrecking ball gifted to Monica from Paul Herbinger, muslin tablecloths from Monica’s wedding, deer antlers from the collection of Dr. Rudolph Paula Sr., mirrors from our homes, fur and fur tails from Dee Shiremann’s opera stole, doilies from Rychèl’s tablecloth collection, wooden curtain hoops from Rosalie Thérin’s house, beads from Rychèl’s vintage necklace collection, pearl hat pins from Rychèl’s sewing box, Rychèl’s daughter’s pearls, baby blanket crocheted by Louise Le Masurier, dyed unspun carded wool from Rychèl’s daughter’s craft box, bone found by Rychèl in Ouainse Wood, carabiner from Rychèl’s keys, 250 x 1200 x 〜2600 cm. Photo by Xenia Snapiro.
This work was conceived as an experiment in symbiotic art-making and speculative place-making -- LoCascio and Thérin spent months sharing ideas and collecting materials before beginning to make. Inspired by their mutual migratory experiences, questions of memories held in materials, and heritage craft practices, the artists endeavored to create work that was truly collaborative through symbiotic creation. What does it mean to create art intuitively through two intuitions? What happens when two practices are practiced together? What new forms are discovered through mutual imagination?
No sketches were made prior to beginning, they just began. “We started out with a frame, two meters high, one meter wide. Monica had had it made for a previous project, it was this size so she could fit inside of it. Now that we hung it perpendicular to the floor, we could both sit or stand within the boundary. Whatever we made would carry us both. To make this piece, we played many games of give and take, adding and subtracting whilst making and un-making then remaking the vessel we were crafting to carry our thoughts in.”
By employing only materials that were either inherited or collected, the artists explored how materials might hold the memory of where they were from, and how that might influence artistic interaction and audience resonance. Furs from Aunties, blankets from their children and mothers, beads long-soaked in potential use, and antlers from a family friend all lent their lived experience and presence to the work.
The main piece, which started as a potential boat, slowly morphed from vessel to net, to shipwreck; nest, to seedpod, to cacao bean; shell, to cocoon, to sea creature... the materiality of the work keeping it in a state of constantly becoming. The sculpture series took on the figurative shape of hybrid life forms -- beings in the state of birthing and becoming, natural materials becoming alive through association, aliens strangely familiar.
photo by Xenia Snapiro
You may expel Nature with a pitchfork, but she will always return - III, 250mm x W 200mm x H 〜250mm
You may expel Nature with a pitchfork, but she will always return - I, 250mm x W 200mm x H 〜250mm
You may expel Nature with a pitchfork, but she will always return - II, 200mm x W 〜260mm x H 〜450mm
