Pragmatic Ontolgoies, 2008
Pragmatic Ontologies was a series of private performances completed while at an artist in residence program at the Vermont Studio Center. The text is cut from various organza like fabrics and placed in various environments, mostly in the studio. As private performances, these works were temporary interventions, documented as photographs. At the time it seemed important to make these material declarations of subjectivity, mostly to myself. “I do” was the largest text. The black letters are several feet high and I cross country skied out to this open hill top, placing the letters in the snow, it was a moment of exhilaration, triumph. “I doubt” was shimmering grey letters I placed in the floor in the empty corner of the studio. The emptiness of the studio mirroring the sensation of tenuousness and uncertainty of the experience of doubt. “I know” was cut tiny letters, placed onto the bumby surface of a many times painted over piece of studio furniture, a miniature play snowscape/moonscape. “I am” was the first to come, was part of a collaborative project made in an empty studio with the Vietnamese artist Thu Kim Vu. The letter “i” had been left on the wall, the trace of a former studio resident.