Curated exhibition, 2024
A collaborative composition & performance with Nathan Hall (he/him). With help from a quartet of chamber musicians, I’m Waiting for Your Crip Cadence creates & recreates an auditory & visual experience of what it feels like to exist in a chronically sick bodymind.
15 minute performance, 2024
Sacred Bodymind
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Stemming from traditions of Catholicism, the veneration of Saints, & pre-capitalistic rituals of community care, Sacred Bodymind performs the figural & literal “sick bodymind.” In opposition to those who believe illness causes a poor quality of life, the performance demands a veneration & celebration of the sick bodymind to the pinnacle of sainthood.
2 hour performance, 2024
exhibition, 2023, photography, mortality, collaboration, denver
Black Mass Blood Ritual
in collaboration with Genevieve Waller
The Storeroom, Denver
Black Mass Blood Ritual invites participants to enter into an occult reimagining of Catholic mass through the lenses of chronic illness, BDSM culture, & non-normative bodily desire. The project is a continuation of the artists’ collaborative work exploring the intersections of sexuality, (dis)ability, care, & dependency through installation & participatory performance.
Installation, 2024
exhibition, 2023, photography, mortality, collaboration, denver
Black Mass Blood Ritual
in collaboration with Genevieve Waller
Counterpath Press, Denver
Black Mass Blood Ritual invites participants to partake in an occult reimagining of Catholic mass through the lenses of chronic illness, BDSM culture, & non-normative bodily desire. The project is a continuation of the artists’ collaborative work exploring the intersections of sexuality, disability, care, & dependency through installation & participatory performance.
1 hour 30 minute performance, 2023
exhibition, 2023, photography, mortality, collaboration, denver
Sacred Bodymind
East Window, Boulder
Stemming from traditions of Catholicism, the veneration of Saints, & pre-capitalistic rituals of community care, Sacred Bodymind performs the figural & literal “sick bodymind.” In opposition to those who believe illness causes a poor quality of life, the performance demands a veneration & celebration of the sick bodymind to the pinnacle of sainthood.
2 hour performance, 2023
exhibition, 2023, photography, mortality, collaboration, denver
For many artists & scholars, photography has a direct connection with temporality & mortality. As literary theorist Roland Barthes asserts in Camera Lucida (1980), “Photography may correspond to the intrusion, in our modern society, of an asymbolic Death, outside of religion, outside of ritual, a kind of abrupt dive into literal Death. Life/Death: the paradigm is reduced to a simple click, the one separating the initial pose from the final print. With the Photograph, we enter into flat Death.”
Curated exhibition, 2023
exhibition, 2023, photography, mortality, collaboration, denver
The introductory essay to Femme Salée’s second art journal issue, Care & Dependency.
Art writing, 2023
writing, 2023, care, dependency, crip-time, (dis)ability, femme salée
A re-presentation performance of Revealed Body (2018) featuring new breathing treatment technologies whilst reading an edited version of the performance’s accompanying phenomenological essay.
30 minute performance, 2022
performance, 2022, cyborg, crip-time, (dis)ability, phenomenology, care, dependency, public, denver
A workshop hosted at the Denver Art Museum that explores the relationship between painting & movement as acts of creative expression utilizing the artist’s body in a four-week class. Using acrylic paint, watercolor, canvas, & paper, participants discover how to combine motion & painting into a single artwork.
Artist workshop, 2022
workshop, 2022, performance, painting, denver
What A Gallery Wants
An exhibition critiquing the familiar phrase “in sickness and in health, ‘til death do us part,” a common wedding vow that conjures up images of an idealized future between two people & their devotion despite life’s ups & downs.
Artist workshop, 2022
exhibition, 2023, queer, (dis)ability, mortality, collaboration, denver
An exhibition critiquing the familiar phrase “in sickness and in health, ‘til death do us part,” a common wedding vow that conjures up images of an idealized future between two people & their devotion despite life’s ups & downs.
exhibition, 2023, queer, (dis)ability, mortality, collaboration, denver
Rash, 1.0 is an experimental performance that combines painting with cathartic emotion & movement in front of an audience. It is an ephemeral act that remains in the material forms of two canvases, a white jumpsuit, a pair of white Keds, beige underwear, a pair of white socks, & two paint cans all of which are covered in dried, red paint.
30 minute performance, 2022
performance, 2022, (dis)ability, phenomenology, public, denver
A two-week-long artist residency from January 10 – 23, 2022 at Stove Works in Chattanooga, TN & experimental installation of used & curated medical supplies called Systems of Care, Incorporated (Incorporated Systems of Care).
Artist residency, 2022
residency, 2022, installation, (dis)ability, crip-time, mortality, chattanooga
Stemming from traditions of Catholicism, the veneration of Saints, & pre-capitalistic rituals of community care, Sacred Bodymind performs the figural & literal “sick bodymind.” In opposition to those who believe illness causes a poor quality of life, the performance demands a veneration & celebration of the sick bodymind to the pinnacle of sainthood.
3 hour performance, 2021
performance, 2021, (dis)ability, crip-time, care, dependency, public, ritual, phenomenology, new orleans
Care Bound/Caring for You is an evening of performance debauchery. Bringing together two works, Care Bound & for Dark Manner: Caring For You, presents a double feature show that blurs boundaries & binaries by asking viewers to consider the tensions & overlaps between the comfortable & uncomfortable, care & pain, sick & healthy, hard & soft, willing & unwilling, hot & cold, abled & disabled, straight & queer, submission & control, taut & slack, & anticipation & sensation.
1 hour 15 minute performance, 2021
performance, 2021, (dis)ability, crip-time, queer, care, dependency, pain, public, phenomenology, collaboration, denver
With the title Soft & Shifting, the exhibition brings together two individual series: The Dark Manner (2015-present) & Metamorphosis (2020-present) to delve into the overlapping interests in transformation, adorning & caring for the body, signs & symbols, & bringing invisible aspects of identity—in this case, unseen (dis)ability & queerness—to the fore.
Two-person exhibition, 2021
exhibition, 2021, (dis)ability, crip-time, queer, collaboration, denver
Magick Hospital is a sight-specific installation that explores ritualistic practices performed through modern medical intervention & how these rituals become a protective armor. Hexus critiques the treatment of those with visible/invisible illnesses & disabilities, & asks whether these treatments serve to make the sick/crip person comfortable or to make able-bodied society feel at ease.
Solo-exhibition, 2021
exhibition, 2021, (dis)ability, ritual, mortality, collaboration, hexus, denver
An essay published via Femme Salée that features analyses of performances by Johanna Hedva & Bob Flanagan. By performing the subject—their (dis)abled, chronically ill bodies—both artists expose their interior selves, specifically their bodily experiences, to their exterior selves, namely their identities. Flanagan & Hedva simultaneously display their bodies as art objects to spectators & establish a physical & emotional exchange between the performer & viewers.
Art writing, 2021
writing, 2021, (dis)ability, crip-time, pain, phenomenology, mortality, femme salée
A five-month long artist residency at the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans, LA focused on creating works that combine jewels & medical supplies as materials related to the sanctity of chronic illness.
Artist residency, 2021
residency, 2021, new orleans
Chronic mental & physical illnesses are those various body & mind experiences rarely seen in public but which are always present. Individuals with these conditions undergo painful sensations that regularly call for constant care & dependency on self, partners, & technology. With this in mind, Hexus Collective’s installation Zones of Invisibility (Holy Body Bag) ruminates on the “invisibility of chronic illness” offering viewers a crucial understanding of the physicality, spirituality, & dimensionality of crip conditions.
Installation, 2021
installation, 2021, (dis)ability, mortality, ritual, collaboration, hexus, boulder
Mirror Mirror presents an exhibition of photography, collage, & film works. Referring to the well-known phrase of the evil stepmother in the Brothers Grimm version of Snow White, the exhibition title conjures ideas of representation, magic, power, & narrative. The full phrase “Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest one of all?” is steeped in racial & gender politics, where the word “fair” is synonymous not only with beauty but implies the superiority of light skin & physical beauty as a woman’s highest achievement.
Curated exhibition, 2021
exhibition, 2021, photography, queer, collaboration, denver
An essay analyzing the works of Todd Edward Herman, an artist who’s films & photographs often deal with themes of the body & transience, representational taboos & spectatorship, & difference & the historic consequences of othering.
Art writing, 2021
writing, 2021, mortality, denver
A performance commemorating the four (dis)abled artist activists, Liz Sexton, Deborah Williams, Barbara Lisicki, & Paddy Masefield, & the decades-long fight for disability justice & equality (a fight that is particularly prevalent in Denver’s public transportation history).
1 hour 30 minute performance, 2020
performance, 2020, (dis)ability, ritual, care, dependency, collaboration, hexus, denver
A live Instagram artist workshop via Plattteforum’s ArtLabTV.
Artist workshop, 2020
workshop, 2020, performance, (dis)ability, crip-time, denver
Metamorphosis consists of a series of photographs, videos with composed soundtracks, & site-specific installations. These works trace the continuous transformation of the sick bodymind after starting three phases of new drugs developed for cystic fibrosis.
Mixed media, 2020
An essay calling all Denver artists—especially other (dis)abled Denver artists—to take action in our community by sharing knowledge about themselves through their writings & artwork in an effort to connect with & educate our/their audiences.
Bad Health is Femme Salée’s inaugural zine edition. Inspired by my body & mind experiences living with cystic fibrosis, I edited the Bad Health issue to feature artworks, poems, & creative writings by artists & writers living with chronic illness(es). Contributors present works that demonstrate & reveal their private, daily lives as people living with “bad” health.
A a two-hour ritual in Boulder, Colorado that invites renewal, growth, & strength to begin the new year.
2 hour performance, 2020
A performance centered on physical (dis)ability & mental illness, & the importance of mutual care & dependency. Inspired by Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece, first performed in 1965, this work activates the audience by inviting them to interact with the primary performer’s body. Rather than audience members taking objects from the performer as they did in Ono’s performance, they offer objects as part of a magickal ritual, symbolically healing the performer’s body & mind.
30 minute performance, 2019
An exhibition emphasizing the altar as a vehicle for ritual exchange between humans & the divine. By presenting contemporary altars as platforms of resistance, altar-makers illustrate the potential of the altar as a tool for reclaiming power & agency from mainstream institutions.
A series of reliquaries that come together as a spiritual altar to the chronically ill body. A reliquary is a container for relics. Traditionally, relics are the alleged or actual physical remains of Catholic Saints, such as bones, pieces of clothing, or some object associated with the Saint.
Mixed media, 2019
A nine-minute essay in response to T\lt West’s roundtable discussion on (dis)ability & accessibility.
in collaboration with Danielle Cunningham
An exhibition emphasizing the altar as both a physical & non-physical space for personalized ritual exchange between humans & the divine. By pairing contemporary artists alongside religious ofrendas, retablos, & other iconography from the Museo de las Americas’ collections, the exhibition illustrates the altar’s inherent transcendence of time & space. These new altars reject any singular context, operating as platforms of resistance through which altar-makers reinterpret traditional practices & reclaim power from mainstream institutions.
It hurts but it feels good is comprised of a short video & medical relics. The film shows me in clinic during the end of a routine, but painful, two-stage PICC line procedure in which a catheter is connected to my pulmonary vein to deliver fluids & antibiotics, & is then removed by a nurse weeks later.
Site-specific installation, 2019
A conversation with Madeleine Boyson followed by a curatorial talk describing the exhibition “Digital Embodiment” as a celebration of works by (dis)abled artists that ignore physical & material boundaries. Instead of performing live in front of a public audience, the artists perform off-stage in a private space for digital recording devices, i.e. an audio recorder or a camera, & various computer software.
An exhibition revealing (dis)abled artists working within the digital realm as a way to create artworks beyond materiality. Using time-based works that exist only within the digital, each artist explores ideas of care, dependency, healing, pain, & crip time to digitally embody the (dis)abled body experience. By transforming the private sphere of (dis)ability into the digital sphere, which can be both private & public, each artist takes agency in revealing an invisible experience to the world via the Internet.
A paper presentation & performance discussing why performance art is a powerful medium for artists who identify as (dis)abled.
Presentation/performance, 2019
Performed in three parts over four evenings, Being Present consists of a physical revealing, a revelatory reading, & a re-concealing where viewers are confronted with a frail, pale, sick body. They watch through their phone cameras to record the performance, adding an additional layer of perception to what may already be an inaccurate preconception about performance, as well as the (dis)abled body.
A paper presentation discussing why performance art is a powerful medium for artists who identify as (dis)abled.
Paper presentation, 2019
You need to gain weight to stay healthy reveals a type of care which causes pain but is needed in order to stay healthy in the long run.
30 minute performance, 2018
A paper presentation discussing how bodies with chronic illness may reveal no signs of illness. Bodies with chronic illness are painful, require maintenance, & cost money. Bodies with chronic illness are the subject & the object. Bodies with chronic illness are both embodied & disembodied. They are bodies with technology.
Paper presentation, 2018
This Body of Work is a photographic series that reveals a private body in need of work due to invisible disability. The photographs make the private body public & chronic illness visible.
Archival inkjet prints, 2018
Revealed Body is a performance to understand the lived body experience of what it means to be embodied in front of an audience, in the public realm. Choosing to look only at the camera instead of engaging with the audience, I make viewers distinctly aware of the body as both subject & object of the artwork.
30 minute performance, 2018
A cystic fibrosis (CF) focused coloring book for children & adults funded by the Boomer Esiason Foundation. 2000 copies, along with 2000 boxes of coloring pencils, were donated to hospitals across the United States to be distributed to CF patients upon arrival at the hospital.
Waiting rooms, waiting for the needle to prick, waiting for the treatment to finish, waiting for the illness to pass, waiting to feel better, waiting to feel worse, waiting to die. Anticipatient is a visual exploration of the sterile spaces in which many of us find ourselves when facing anxieties brought on by the tests & treatments we need to examine, work against, & work with what’s going on in our bodies & minds.
A two-month long project to raise awareness for cystic fibrosis. All funds earned from artwork sales were donated to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Cough, Cough evokes ideas & emotions that help the viewer understand what it is like to be forced to spend prolonged periods of time in a hospital. As a patient, you must relinquish any power you have & put your life in the hands of others. After so many times you become numb to the experience because relinquishing your strength is better than relinquishing your life.
An exploration of existing as chronically ill, white, female body undergoing intravenous antibiotic treatment.
