Psychic Reading Sculpture

This project works with people who operate inside and outside of the art world to question its value-systems and the problems associated with artistic production and authorship. Investigating roles of creativity and agency, I work within a feminized space of making.

Psychics Reading Sculpture is a collaborative project with two renowned San Francisco psychics. A group of women artists participated in a sculptural art-making process. Instructed to draw, cut, or write on a piece of paper, the idea was to transfer some essence of the artist/creator into the piece. The paper was dipped in porcelain slip, crumpled or folded, and then kiln-fired. The remains, an ephemeral record of the gesture, are then psychically read. The results offer a compelling play on notions of intuition, the critique of art, and the presence and absence of objects.

20 women artists participated in an art-making project. In dipping, crumpling, and folding the paper in clay slip, can the artist transfer and embed presence? The objects are kiln fired, burning out the original paper. All that remains is a record of a gesture. The pieces are then presented to a psychic for a reading.