Tending To

2017, Alginate, Copper Leaf, Pine, Paint , 48 x 72 x 4 Inches

Tending To is built of three pinewood tiers and ninety-six vessels. The piece was inspired by my grandmother’s death in October 2016 at ninety-six years old. The last time we were together, I watched her tend to a flowering plant with bent, wrinkled fingers and a deep care. While she was dying, she was keeping something else alive. This image remained with me, causing me to think about the act of tending and the range of what it can mean to different people at different points in our lives.

Each vessel is cast with a material called alginate, mixed with dye and water, then dried and sanded by hand. Thirty-eight are filled with copper leaf, interpreting the copper properties of communication, healing and intuition. The number of pieces on each tier represent the age of the maternal lineage at the time of my grandmother’s death—the overall piece becoming an altar, honoring the women who came before me.

Top: 38 (my age)
Middle: 31 (38 + 31 = 69, my mother’s age)
Bottom: 27 (38 + 31 + 27 = 96, my grandmother’s age)

The book edition, On Tending To, is a photographic archive of this piece.

Tending To and On Tending To were developed as part of Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Process Space program and photographed at LMCC’s Studios in the Arts Center on Governor’s Island.