this celestial body, 2020-2021

Relief prints on kozo paper, digital prints, found book pages, typewritten text on carbon paper, paint pens, colored pencils, water media and thread. Crown book structure with partial slipcase enclosure. Dimensions: 6.25” tall x 4” wide x .75” deep when enclosed and 6.25” tall x 8” wide when open and removed from enclosure. Edition of 5 variants.

This book draws comparisons between the temporary experience of inhabiting a human body and the perceived permanence of celestial bodies such as planets and stars. But in our continually expanding universe, is anything really permanent? Why do we value stability when transmutation is all we know? Using found book pages from “The Stars: A New Way to See Them” by H.A. Rey, an educational science book originally published in 1952, I exploit the tension between bodies, temporality, space and impermanence. Through repeated references to the infinite nature of circles and the use of lightweight, inconsequential materials, I’m encouraging the reader to consider their own personal histories carried within their bodies—-that briefest existence within the vastness of cosmic time-—with an intention to accept uncertainty and impermanence.