Owls of North America, Unwoven
Owls of North America, Unwoven is a multimedia installation that portrays the artist's deep connection to the natural world and avian creatures. Through printmaking, poetry, fiber-work, and illustrations, the work seeks to bring an audience into the intimate lives and spatiality of twenty-one different owl species living across North America. Heavily connected to a book which the artist made during the height of COVID-19 pandemic, the installation serves to deconstruct traditional forms of printmaking and set the owls free. Nameless, placeless, they hang from eucalyptus bark and sway with the wind, as if to be one entity united by the resources that surround them and the forces of humankind, which often seeks to draw borders across spaces and deforest critical habitat.
Owls teach us the importance of solitude and quiet pondering; different from a long informative song of a grosbeak, or the tune of a hermit thrush, the owl speaks a soft message to those who are willing to hear and respond. Being connected to different ecologies of California, the importance in the chatter and in the quiet has made itself known. There is time to sing like a songbird in the light of day and time to reflect along the quiet night, like an owl. There’s time to dance, laugh, and cry; there is time to release your breath into the traveling wind and wait patiently on the night's edge. This installation serves as an embodiment of the teachings of owls, but is also the artist's way of expressing her deep gratitude and respect for these creatures of the night. There are many elements at work, from a map of the most common plant species, woodblock prints of owls, and a wind-trap of resources and organic objects. By setting up the installation in an owls home which the artist has been visiting for many years, this work pushes art-science communication by weaving the owls of the eucalyptus grove into the dialogue.
Though the artist feels the work belongs best in an outdoor setting, she hopes to display the work in a controlled space for more to see at a later date.
