EXPERIMENTS
events / gestures / performances
As an artistic practice and a way of working, I have a few methods. I like to play with art and non-art materials. I like to mine old work and reflect on it anew. I like to take on challenges of unlikely projects that I may learn something from. And I like to collaborate with people working in fields different from my own. I view all these as experiments that may or may not lead to a further investigation or body of work. I think it is interesting to share my process of thinking and making because I am always interested in learning about others’ ways of thinking and working. When creating educational programming, I like to dive deep into a specific artists’ practice and understand their trajectory and way of working beyond what you see in the museum or gallery. That is the aspect I am most interested in - the living spaces, the working spaces, the process, the whole picture. Everything has the potential to be content, to be aesthetic, to be in dialogue with each other.
SCRIBBLE SCORES
The Stone is an experimental music space founded by John Zorn and located at the New School in NYC. In April 2014 my husband, Matthew Mottel was invited for a residency of four nights of musical performances. For the final night of the residency, I collaborated with Matthew in the development and performance of Parents in The Avante Garde, a band of musicians and sound artists who are parents to toddlers. Prior to the performance, we collected scribbles from each child. The performance was a reading of the scribbles as graphic scores. In other words, the scribbles were the music notes dictating the sounds we produced.
PROCESS AND MATERIALS
Since 2024, our family art studio has been located in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Newburgh, NY, inside an old industrial woodshop that is now converted to art studios. Here you will find colorful paper cuts, a rainbow of air dry clay, and various collaborative pieces inspired by the chaos and fearlessness that is my 2.5 year old child.
FAMILY BAND
Formed with our son when he was only 6 months old in 2022, my musician husband and I were immersed in the sounds of childhood toys and tiny musical instruments. With my interest in child-led pedagogy, I took the approach of a child-led public performance.
PSYCHEDELIC STORYTIME
This participatory music and storytime program was launched in 2023 and is an extension of our family band. Our performances evolve into chaos exploration as babies and toddlers get the chance to touch synthesizers, yell into microphones, and play with other musical instruments.
ARCHITECTURE EXPLORATION ORIGAMI (AEO)
I created AEO as a contribution to Amag! Issue #2. This pocket-size paper game guides participants to observe and analyze any space in a fun and collaborative way (or on their own!) The AEO was developed considering the following questions: How do you engage with a space? How does it engage with you? How can you use all your senses to explore a space? What are the limits of exploring a space?
HUNTING NATURE
This day-long film festival gathered music videos, cult classics and animation, looking at the destruction and design of the living landscape. In two acts and one art installation, L’instinct de chasse (Hunting Nature) investigated the possibilities and challenges embodied in designing nature. This film program was curated in tandem with the exhibition First, The Forests at the CCA in Montreal (2012)
THE CITY ERASED
The city remembered, the city annihilated, and the city in decay are each a premise for the city in a state of erasure. The City Erased presented depictions of obliterated society and investigates the necessity for reaffirmation of life in the wake of total destruction. This day-long film festival gathered experimental films, TV shows and cult classics and places them in conversation with cultural, social, and environmental issues. Curated in collaboration with Simon Pennec for the CCA in Montreal (2011).