I’m excited to let you know that my work is in two locations for the Terrain Biennial, running from October 1 - November 15, 2023. The first, is a project that’s been simmering for a while. I’ve been spending time in an alley near my house, it’s a gap like many gaps in Los Angeles. It’s a passageway for coyote, skunk, opossum and people. Elderberry, Mountain Mahogany, and Peach hang over the fence providing food and shelter for birds, squirrels and rats. The soil that gathers on the concrete wall under the Elderberry creates the nook for ants and spiders to do their work. When it rains, the water flows to create a creek that runs to the drain near the street. To witness the tenacious California Morning Glory coming up through a few inches of soil, despite the concrete underneath, is humbling.
I’ve written three poems that are engraved on brass metal plaques and mounted to the fences. The poems acknowledge the beauty of this place. They have been created with gratitude and respect for the Tongva and their care of this land over many years past, present and future.
MINDING THE GAP in Los Angeles, California
Jen Herzig Smith poems on display at 1629 Fair Park Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90041 in the alley/gap
The second is artwork that is part of a collaboration with myself and two Wales-based artists, Roz Moreton, and Siân Barlow. In the last few months we have been on Zoom calls with each other in drawing sessions led by Roz Moreton. Many of the self-portraits shown in Terrain were created during, or inspired by, our sessions together.
For Terrain, we are hosting one another's self-portraits outsde in front of our homes. By hosting one another's self-portraits, we are acknowledging that our conversations act as mirrors, and that the conversations and the connections we have made with one another hold meaning. These recent years have felt like civilizational thresholds, as well as personal thresholds in each of our lives. Engaging with kindness, and being witnessed by each other, we have been able to move towards seeing ourselves with more clarity.
We are inspired by these words from Audre Lorde: “The quality of light by which we scrutinize our lives has direct bearing upon the product which we live, and upon the changes which we hope to bring about through those lives”. Audre Lorde, Poetry is Not a Luxury (1977)
It is in the long work of self-scrutiny that we can find the deeper material of our dreams, our fears, our desires; and can see clearly our own pain, and within that pain our beauty. And through this work we are gathering courage, to find ways forward both in our work as artists, and in playing our part locally to bring about positive change in our communities. MIRRORING in Wales, Uk and Los Angeles, California
Roz Moreton self-portraits on display at 13 Furnace Terrace, Pontyberem, Llanelli, Carmarthenshire SA15 5AE, Wales, UK Roz Moreton is a Visual Artist living and working in Carmarthenshire. Her health issues including chronic migraines, Ehlers Danos Syndrome (EDS), and her neurodiversity influence how she approaches her creative practice. Exploring elements of the emotional and the physical, she observes, records and captures the human imprinting of our natural and man-made landscapes. Instagram: @rozmoreton
Siân Barlow self-portraits on display at 1631 Fair Park Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90041 in the alley/gap
Siân Barlow used to work as a healthcare advocate, more recently she's changed direction and become an artists. She makes work about how we are, and how we could be, preferring to ask questions, leaving answers open.
Instagram: @sian_barloww
And my own self-portrait.