Indigo Hallow responds to time spent in the Shakerag Hollow, hiking, watching, and listening. Shakerag is a narrow canyon within the Domain, a 13,000 acre "living laboratory" owned by the University of the South. 

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The form of the installation is an expression of my perception of the land. The denim is used to emulate a sense of the stone, path, waterfall and canopy. The lighting comes mostly from one side to reflect the sun entering the hallow and plays with our senses through shadow and light.

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Along side the environmental, I included a sound element and a figurative sculpture of a raven called The Weight of the Sky. 

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The raven is a bird of great intellect, capable of problem solving, learning and adapting with an extensive range of calls used to communicate. Although not native to TN they are important to me because of my many years living in Alaska where the raven was one of the few year round birds. These big, talkative corvids are always watchful and are featured broadly in various myths as a trickster, messenger between worlds, and symbols of death and rebirth. 

 

Feelings of loss and abandonment became entangled with the raven and I began to think of it as an expression of warning and battle, broken but not defeated. Alerting us to be mindful of our transgressions.

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Sound is also important to understanding place. The soundtrack created for this installation was created from three distinct sources. First was a continuous but varied track of rushing water and rain. Second was a recording I made of the 2017 Women’s March in DC. It included 1hour and 57 minutes of chanting, singing, marching, chatter, clapping booing, and noise. I deleted any insignificant noice, and references to names but left chanting and signing. Third, was to use natural ambient sounds organized by the progression of a day, culminating in a storm and easing back into sounds of night. 

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The chants come through the ambient sounds of nature. My intention was to disorientate the viewer and disrupt feelings evoked by the physical to consider the political. The land is political and our stewardship of it requires that we tune in and participate

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