Video Art

The Body Remembers

Awarded First Place in Artistic Expression at the 2024 University of Missouri Show Me Research Week

Acrylic yarn, recycled tumbled glass, found frame, handmade stain (strawberries, olive oil), projection

The Body Remembers is an animated video art piece projected onto a hanging sculpture made of tumbled fragments of recycled glass and hand-knit ribbons of acrylic yarn. Abstractly composed into the form of an injured deer, this piece represents the Earth in its current state. The animation features orbs of light which illuminate the individual pieces of glass as cars pass and the silhouettes of vultures and red-tailed hawks circle above. Subtle movement as the red-tailed hawks flap their wings spells out "REST" in Morse code. Line work which highlights the individual stitching in each piece of knitted ribbon is a constant throughout the animation.

This piece prompts the viewers to question their own response to facing destruction and mortality on a daily basis - should we look away, or confront it? Combining elements of digital art, fiber arts, and ecological art, The Body Remembers allows us to ponder the fatal impact that our wasteful and careless habits have on the world and the species that we share it with.

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In 2019 as I was driving my sister home from a school event in pitch black, a young deer jumped out onto the narrow, winding highway. I had two choices - either I could swerve to the left into oncoming traffic, risking my sister's life in the passenger seat, or continue forward and hit the deer. I know I made the right choice, but it broke my heart that I chose to kill that innocent deer. The next morning, I walked out to the field behind my house where I knew deer grazed and left an offering of apples and oats as an apology and an acknowledgement of their grief. It never felt like enough though - I had ripped a community apart. I have spent the last five years unable to get that thought out of my head. Over time, I began saying "rest in peace" to each dead animal I passed on the road. Why should we respect dead animals any less than we respect our dead?

I created this piece with the feedback and support from students and professors in the ASH Scholars Art of Death Program at the University of Missouri. During the process of creating this piece, the deer became a metaphor for our environment. In a way, we are the land that we live and die on. When we die our nutrients disperse into and become one with the Earth. Therefore, to treat the Earth as a disposable is to treat ourselves as disposable.

20th Century Slave: The Horror Story of Dora Jones

Animated Projection Installation

This project was presented in collaboration with Dr. Christina Carney at the 2023 Haunting Humanities event in Lawrence, Kansas. The monster featured in this animation depicts Dora Jones' abuser, Elizabeth Ingalls, following the viewer through horrific scenes of Dora's abuse in the Ingalls home. The piece features structures made up of primary documents, such as census records, newspaper articles, and military paperwork, alongside the melody of "Sadie's Servant Room Blues," by Hattie Burleson.

Dora Jones met Elizabeth when she attended Trinity Missionary Day School in Athens, Alabama, where Elizabeth was a teacher. Later, when Dora was a teenager, she was forced to leave her education behind to work for Elizabeth and her first husband, Walter in Washington, D.C. After she was raped by Walter, Elizabeth forced Dora to have an abortion - a "crime" which was used as blackmail against Dora to work without pay for nearly forty years.

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To learn more about Dora's story, read Dr. Carney's article:

 "20th Century Slave: the Horror Story of Dora Jones"