Synthetic nylon tulle, fluid acrylics, gloss medium, nylon ripstop, thread, air, inflatable blowers, potions made from expired makeup pigments, lotions, shampoos, hair gel, bath bombs, vaseline, nail polish, baby oil, wax, imitation pearls, iridescent beads, 2023.

In a time and place where one feels powerless to patriarchal systems of oppression, I draw upon the idea of magical thinking and ritual as a cultural phenomenon embraced and instantiated by girls and young women, specifically in the context of the American slumber party. From concocting potions with products found under the bathroom sink to making friends levitate with the incantation, “light as a feather, stiff as a board,” I have come to understand my perpetual interest in magic to be symbolically resonant to the ubiquitous, yet complex and multifaceted experience of living as female on the cusp of adulthood; Finding an awareness of oneself while contending with burdening societal expectations.

Levitate (ʇɐolɟ ǝǝɹɟ) seeks to hold space for wishful thinking to enact; A space to exercise autonomy by existing in-between, a space to become and unbecome, to manifest and release, both individually and collectively. The installation incorporates handmade inflatable sculptures that I refer to as breathing beings. Each breathing being is informed by the female body in addition to other references such as the criss-cross-applesauce position, kneeling, Venus of Willendorf, perfume bottles, rococo style potpourri vases, and headless mannequins. The breathing beings gather with intention to ritually levitate into formless femme spirits. An offering of homemade potions is made to actualize the ritual.

The hovering tulle represents the transformation of the levitated spirit. The piece is constructed from a process of bathing layers of tulle in paint, then intuitively stitching/mending/piercing it together by hand to evoke a bodily presence. I am interested in using tulle’s materiality to confront labor, subjectivity, and contradiction as it relates to lived experience, while also tapping in to an experience beyond the body through the use of cast shadows as a form of ephemeral drawing. As an experimental performance of ritual, Levitate (ʇɐolɟ ǝǝɹɟ) poses the potential possibility of magic for imagining a new embodied experience, where the pursuit (and struggle) to defy gravity becomes a metaphor for girls’ and women’s continual resistance against the rules, regulations, and baggage imposed by patriarchal structures.