We, Precarious (Work-in-progress) ©2006-2010

We, Precarious is a multiple channel video installation which describes the circular continuum of life from before birth to death and back again. Central to its theme is the trilogy of Mother, Sister and Daughter. Configured as a large scale, triangular triptych, each panel will show the circular cycle of living through pairings of young and old, the firm and infirm, the dying and the unborn. A fourth element, which reveals the intimate and celebratory moments within living, will be viewable from within the triangle-shaped space made by the three large projection screens.

A Mother, a Sister, a Daughter. Each share all three roles and yet, as one evolves into the next, their roles change. We, Precarious is an elegy for the living and the dying—a pregnant woman, her dying Sister, her dying Mother, and eventually, her newborn Daughter. In the passage from one stage of life to the next, there is a peaceful and even joyful acceptance of the continuum of life through death and back to birth—a cycle unbroken.

The video installation will be configured with three 7 x 9 foot screens adjoined at the corners to create a large triangle, with a space at the corners for the viewer to walk through to enter the triangle. Inside, two small, 5 inch LCD monitors positioned back to back on a pole will rotate slowly in a continuous circle. The large projections, different on each panel, will show images of contrasting touches and embraces: the artist’s hands reach around her Mother’s body to touch her surgical scars; the old, wrinkled hands of the artist’s Mother hold her Daughter’s pregnant belly; the artist’s hands caress the back of her cancer-ravaged Sister; the artist’s Daughter reaches out to touch the face of her dying Aunt. Each scene is the repetition of a simple gesture. Within the triangle, the small video images will show more intimate, spontaneous moments within lives of the women, revealing the essence of the Mother, Sister, Daughter relationship.

We, Precarious is supported by a generous grant from
the New York State Council for the Arts.