Nexus: Exquisite Corpse-- Pam Lawton




My mother is constantly on my mind.  She's suffered from dementia for about 15 years, a result of several mini strokes.  Additionally, she's survived breast cancer and cervical cancer (resulting from her breast cancer treatments).  At 91 she's still hanging on but has lost so much weight, she is skeletal.  I know we will lose her soon---another 2020 trauma that I'm struggling with.  NEXUS for me refers to an intersection and connection.  Mom and I have a lot in common and she has greatly influenced my life.  I decided to approach this by creating an exquisite corpse, focusing on the similarities that bind me and my mom. I created images of us both at age 8 from photos I have and cut each image into 5 mix and match parts.  Each part has a piece of velcro that can be attached to the back of the long strips of paper that serve as a base to 'play' with the images, rearranging them in various ways.  I think perhaps as a whole, the piece is a bit thick for Gloria's accordion book---but, I managed to fit it all in the envelope pocket she provided! The process has inspired me to make two additional exquisite corpse pieces using images of me and my mom as young and older women. I plan to create a larger piece as one of the works I'm creating inspired by our book project.


Here's a brief video I made about the piece.  Mom died the next day (11/21/2020)

https://youtu.be/_bb4oi0JKnk





                                        

    




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