Digital Study #7 (Gift Waves)
In conjunction with my ongoing exhibition Ghost Pearls at Granary Arts, UT, I’m releasing a series of fully digital studies that further expand ideas touched on within the show. This series explores ways in which economic structures, purpose, and community can be linked; and forms by which voice can be transmitted across time. The second in this series of three works is Gift Waves.
Digital Study #7 (Gift Waves), 2023
As Granary Arts Fellow, I researched histories of lace in Ephraim, UT. One afternoon, the local artist Julie Johnson invited me to lunch at her home, shared her lace-making practice, taught me basic stitches, and gifted me a piece she had made. During the residency, I was also researching archival material relating to the Ephraim Relief Society—a unique, women-owned and operated organization that played a key role in Ephraim’s history—and in particular, the ledgers the Relief Society kept from ~1856-1950 to record their significant charitable activities across the community. These interests were connected, as both lace and ledgers are formats for encoding value and time.
In this digital study, the physical lace Julie Johnson gifted to me is reimagined as a virtual column made of transparent, woven glass links. With the spirit of exchange, this work is gifted to her.