altar(ity) in the woods
(it's just a nod to)
ōrō is a site-specific performance and installation from 2016, located in a forest outside of Ålvik, Norway from 2016. This work is meant to finish the Vestige performance.
On one of my hikes I found what appeared to be a stone ruin of some sort, most likely the remains of an old home. Over the summer I had been making small watercolors of anatomical hearts. The act was less about the paintings and more about settling myself into a rhythm of daily meditation and prayer. Upon unearthing the Vestiges, I realized that the ruin I had found in the woods would be a perfect place to not only “plant” my prayer-hearts, but also my second skins. I cleaned the ruin, and then created an altar inside using materials I found within and around the structure: branches, pine needles, flowers, etc. The act of cleaning up and creating the altar was also a meditative act on my part, a gesture/performance meant to open myself up to beauty. I placed the prayer hearts on and around the altar, as well as the recently unburied Vestiges. I welcomed the local community to process with me from town to the ruin, where they were invited to place flowers and further interact with the piece through a placing of their own prayers. The altar has been left in the woods for anyone to visit and interact with. The watercolor hearts and plaster casts will eventually dissolve into the earth, transformed by the rain, finally being “planted”.
ōrō, site-specific installation, Ålvik, Norway, 2016
a little heart
orison in the sky
(I pray, I entreat)
where I plant
orison
what gifts we give
what gifts we take