In preparation for this installation I began a daily practice of creating labyrinths on August 15, 2008.
A Daily Practice. Making ephemeral work.
Each day I make a labyrinth. It may be made in the sand at the beach, a painted watercolor, color crayons placed end-to-end, or it may be made from seaweed. The material used and the way the labyrinth is constructed day-by-day depends on where I am, how much time I have, and what’s available. The point of this daily practice is, in part, to get to know the labyrinth as a form. Since Communion: The Labyrinth Project requires constructing a public labyrinth for walking, I want to be really familiar with the form, the pattern, the experience of making it and walking it. Making a labyrinth each day is also a prayer practice for me. Each time I make one, I form an intention, ask for guidance, or for blessings on people in my life.
Another important reason for making a labyrinth each day is to experience labyrinths, and the making of them, in an ephemeral way. Communion: The Labyrinth Project is a one-day public exhibition. The installation will be on exhibition for one day only, October 3rd. The next day I will deconstruct it and discard much of it.
As a video artist I am generally attached to the products of my work, the actual videos, and I like having them as material parts of my body of work. Even though video is digital, and the video files essentially live in a digital form, they are none-the-less creative products.
Making Communion: The Labyrinth Project is a very different kind of work for me. That it is an installation, that it will exhibit for one day only, and that I will not recreate it in the same way with the same materials ever again makes this project unique for me. In that way it is ephemeral, and that’s one of the ways my daily practice is hugely beneficial.
Day 1 Labyrinth.
I was surprised when I discovered a love for creating ephemeral work as I made that first one on August 15 at the Oysterville beach.
