invisible forces (time and place) shape our realities.
tears like pearls fall from our eyes, slipping into waiting lachrymatories.
the land spins. from the center rises a note of joy and lament.
sustained and eerie, echoing across the almond fields
into an uncertain future.
“Spinning on Uncertain Ground,” was an interactive, site-specific installation. Installation elements included a trough of earth with 12 footprints, a series of hand blown glass lachrymatories containing pearls, a cloth panel embroidered with the text: gather your tears into my bottle, an ancient Roman lachrymatory borrowed from an antiquities collection, an oversized milking stool upon which viewers were invited to sit while listening to “Radical Beauty,” a site-specific audio piece, two video projections: one featuring a child spinning and one featuring a woman spinning, each on the beach but circling in opposite directions, and other discreet objects.
Many thanks to Aiyana Sky Powell for spinning in, “Young Girl Spinning.”
Special thanks to filmmaker Robin Bisio and to dancer Cybil Gilbertson for 30 beautiful seconds from the film “Reign of Dreams.”
Lisa Marie Kaftori in collaboration with Sophia Isajiw. University Art Gallery, California State University Stanislaus, 2000
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