Letter to Grandma
Sliding Frame
ice, rammed earth, raw clay, 15’ x 15’ x 6”
Sliding Frames consists of fourteen ice frames surrounding wet-clay pictures, which are mounted on a wall above a compressed-earth shelf that supports four raw-clay vases containing flowers and water. As the ice melts, water seeps behind the pictures, slicking the clay’s surface so that the pictures slide down the wall, sometimes knocking down a section of a shelf as they fall. Water also eats through the bottom of the vase, then the shelf, causing the shelf to crack and both shelf and vase to come crashing down. The aftermath of the work consists of fractured earth chunks commingling with misshapen clay slabs, broken vases, and decomposing flowers that rest amongst pools of water and pigment. In this work, the frame becomes the picture and both dismantle the shelf. In lived spaces, things lose their boundaries, their individuality; and start to amalgamate, through time and proximity.