• bridal procession, 1993
  • bridal procession, 1993

bridal procession, 1993

life units, 1993

Justina M. Barnicke Gallery.  Installation view

wheat, earth, steel, cedar, leather, glass, urine

10’6” x 41’ x 31’

cart bed with wheat - 7’ x 4’ x 10’

bridle procession - 3”3” x 3’ x 30’

 

At this time my material and conceptual concerns were focused on the breakdown of the body. Materially I used urine as the signifier for illness and death - as a substance it is both living and dead. The bridal conveyed a type of harnessing and in some ways social control. The metal structure performs a type of coveting of the waste, and the procession arrangement is a form of death march. ??Urine is an abject substance and here it is signaling the breakdown of the body. This was at a period where it wasn’t used as a material – it was before Andre Serrano’s “Piss Christ.” I had been influenced by Joseph Beuys and was really interested using materials that were subject to temporality. The urine changed over the course of the show - with the sediment sinking to the bottom.

Exhibition History

1995    piel profunda / skin deep. Galería del Sur, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Xochimilco, D.F. México. Curated by the North America Free Artists’ Association (NAFAA).
1993    life units. East and West Galleries. Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, Hart House, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario. Curated by Judy Schwartz.