She’ll be late

Lewis Carroll’s Alice follows a rabbit down a hole and into an inverted world inhabited by characters who challenge her sense of who she is and what she knows. Through various means, she changes size on a dozen occasions. Her recitation of lessons learned in her previous world—multiplication tables, poems, and other information—is similarly altered. What was once sensible is rendered nonsensical. What was once normal is no longer.  But she eventually begins to find a new self and to form a more fixed identity, mirroring the process of adaptation to challenges in the midst of upheaval. 

My project envisions Alice’s journey as a way to explore a different kind of transition—the move into one’s final decades. The work relates a loose narrative of a woman who enters into this new world. After some exploration, she begins to wonder if escape is an option. In pondering the possibilities, she builds models and creates tools that are intended to help her realize her plans. But she can’t really use a ladder made of cloth, or a painting of braided hair. The dark hole is flat, the circles never-ending. The rain isn’t real, nor are the snowflakes. What once was stable is now weak. What was once a given, is now a guess.

As Alice notes on her own adventure, “How puzzling all these changes are!”

This presentation brings together diverse media and approaches that, while recently produced, reflect a lifetime of varied pursuits in art-making. Inconsistency is something I’ve decided to embrace because conceptually and practically, it fits.

“Who am I then? Tell me that first, and then, if I like being that person, I’ll come up—if not, I’ll stay down here till I’m somebody else.” I like Alice’s attitude.