Calling Home
2021
Green upholstery velvet, foam, batting, wood, nails, screws, staples, glue, string, pins, buttons
approximately 15’ across and 6’ deep
—
The act of calling- naming a thing, a place, a person, a relationship. To name something, call it your own, suggests a sense of mutual responsibility towards a sense of purpose, comfort, calm, safety, sometimes love.
Calling like a phone call- to hear the phone ring and wait, wait, hoping far away friends, family members, memories connect you on the other line.
The couch acts as a present absence in the gallery, inviting participants to sit and consider their own relationships with the objects, furniture, and spaces that frame our individual and collective histories. Acting as a dream-like space, a familiar object in an exaggerated form, the couch acts as a vehicle for imagining and manifesting personal speculative futures, redefining our conceptions of family and community, and embracing ongoing change. In the (almost) aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the couch also acts as a space of healing and reconnecting. After a year spent with much of our time and interactions rooted in a frontal positioning towards a screen, the couch curls inward, hugging sitters and encouraging interpersonal interaction irl. A space for conversation, eye contact, physical feeling; the cushions, velvet, pleats, bodily warmth.
