Mary Linda Moss

"essential waters"

multi media installation
2007

My work delves into the ephemeral, the transitional, the transformative in ourselves, the vulnerable point from which we come to a new awareness of self. The unique use of organic matter in conjunction with other materials is aesthetically engaging but also presents a concept essential to my work. I ask you to consider how the cyclical aspects of the natural world metaphorically relate to our own emotional lives. I am suggesting our spiritual and actual, physical connection to the earth in its most basic elements, with its continual, perpetual sloughing off and regeneration. My sculpture and installation work explores issues of fragility, exposure and protection, dissipation, insufficiency and the need for nourishment, spiritual and otherwise. The intricacy of detail and the sensuality of surface invite an intimate, fresh look at how we experience and ourselves.

essential waters is an installation through which one can experience the potential chasm between abundance and deprivation. The space is defined by hanging paper or silk on which images of water and thriving plant life are projected. The interior is bounded by an abundance of live plants. Suspended in the center of the space, is a dry 3’ tree with its roots exposed. Subtly apparent only after study, are images of children worked into the branches and trunk of the tree. Beneath the tree are fallen leaves, some of which are also backed in photos. There is text with readings of the impact of neglect and lists of words related to abundance and lack, nurturing and deprivation. The space can be misted, creating a sense of humidity in the space. All of this creates an experience of nurturance while at the same time bringing about an unsettling awareness of the opposite. This dichotomy of wealth and poverty, abundance and lack, in close proximity, is ever-present here in Los Angeles.

Artist Contact: imarylinda@aol.com

For more information about this exhibit or Gallery 825

Contact: Sinead Finnerty-Pyne
825 N. La Cienega Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA  90069

310.652.8272 ph.  / 310.652.9251fx.

sinead@laaa.org / www.laaa.org