Lot 43

Observance (2017-present) is a collection of videos and still images that explore our relationship to time and personal history in context of our relationships with others and our response to the healing properties of nature.  Using a still life as a metaphor for the ephemerality of time, each photograph and video recalls a person in the artist’s life. The video works record her hands removing and reordering the flowers in the vases, acknowledging how memories and loss shift over time.  These bodies of work, informed by the history of floral photography and painting, moves beyond traditional still life with the presence of performance and repetitive capture. Through this process the arrangements change and plants fade, while the vases remain ready to be filled again with fresh flowers for another day – offering countless possible narratives while echoing past lives. Observance recalls the AIDS crisis and acknowledges a new cycle of awareness and mourning as people who have made an impact on the artist’s life are also aging and reflecting on their experiences.

View a short clip of the full video here.