GOODBYE TO PICTURES (2019) 

MFA Thesis exhibition presented in Steuben Gallery at Pratt Institute

This exhibition traced my characters' experience of the world, live and through representations.

The Girl, shown in etchings on silk, traverses the realms of language and landscape to find herself.

The Wandering Bird, first conceived in NAUTILUS FREE LOSSY (2018), has been captured in video walking around an otherworldly landscape, which viewers see through a quilted hole on a large fabric screen.

The Picture Maker holds court. She stands in the center of the room, pouring a refreshing lemonade offering to anyone who selects a sumi ink-painted cup and follows the path on the floor and finds their way to her.

As written about by Anne S. Rogers:

"The Picture Maker has trapped the image of the Wandering Bird in her world, constraining its roaming to a small space that is only one stop on the journey towards the reward that she promises.

Connie describes the Wandering Bird as being eager to experience the world, as free, as present in the space they occupy. The Picture Maker, however, is putting on appearances. The Picture Maker is spatially trapped by the table that surrounds her—it allows her to lure people in with the promise of a sweet drink, and maintains her presence as a certain image, but it also restricts her movement, and her ability to interact with the world. She cannot experience the freedom of movement that the Wandering Bird has when she is in this role. For me, this brings up questions about how we behave when we are present in the world and unconcerned with how we will be perceived, versus when we are focused on creating the image that will influence how we are remembered in the future."

'Girl's Theme, Variation D'
2019
Etching on silk charmeuse
Approx. 15"h x 17.5"w

One of six etchings on silk shown in 'GOODBYE TO PICTURES' (2019). Variation D features the second state of a plate that was printed in progression. The imagery features traces of a mythologized personal narrative that provided context to the interactive and performative elements of the exhibition. Here, a mysterious bird character and a girl in a striped dress, whose hair contains a cosmic landscape and whose head has somehow burst open with plant life and other materials, make contact.

The self as eternal light, scattered prismatically onto the earth and others (detail)
2019
Handsewn fabric
100"h x 112"w

‘The self as eternal light, scattered prismatically onto the earth and others’ is a sewn hanging piece that was presented at ‘GOODBYE TO PICTURES’ (2019). Made by hand on my living room floor using fabric scraps salvaged from Pratt’s fashion studios, the piece is a lyrical unfolding of color and shape. The monumental scale of this piece supports connections to abstract painting, tapestries, and cartography.

PC Jennifer Ho