MOO-D: A Rural Urban Adventure
Episode 1: Guided Tour 1
ABOUT MOO-D
My childhood house has a view of a cow milking (dairy) farm where cows are kept inside and is also near farms where cows are allowed to graze. Although both groups of cows have the physical and biological ability to be milked or to graze, their location and circumstance only allow them one perspective. Growing up in Central PA, I observed and absorbed stigmas surrounding the idea of the city and cultures outside of my hometown community. I’m now living in Philadelphia where there is generalization and cultural assumptions when considering the rural. This ongoing series of work aims to confront my own experiences, my continued journey in overcoming learned biases, recognizing privilege and constructed perceptions with a focus on queering perceived and constructed binaries using visual art as a catalyst to amplify these conversations. Using the dairy cow as a symbol of hidden violence and text as a comical, yet relevant, entry point for dialogue, my most recent work - “MOO-D: A Rural Urban Adventure, Episode 1: Guided Tour 1 - captures me leading a life-sized Pennsylvania-shaped Holstein Cow soft sculpture through Center City Philadelphia. The cow acts as a projected version of myself, my childhood, my hometown, and my current urban residence. It exists in the urban landscape creating a dialogue around perceived biases of what does or does not “belong” in a particular area.
Photo Album 1
Project Development
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MOO-D
2021-2022-?
During my time at the Studios at MASS MoCA, I was able to think critically about the next steps in my studio and how I wanted to talk about my experiences in a way that I might be able to start a real and much needed conversation with others. Being a very rural/urban city, North Adams, Massachusetts was the ideal place to stoke the fire for this project. Being there gave me the time to work through ideas, and the unique space to reflect and research. I was also welcomed into such an amazing community of artists who were so willing to accept me and teach me. My work is rooted in learning and sharing, and my goals with this project are simply that - to learn and to share.
To read more about this project:
