Community Truths
2023 Big Sur, California
Gathering community members' thumbprints on fabric and in locally-harvested clay became a much more intimate process than I expected. I heard stories of incarceration, childhoods, and government distrust. I have endless gratitude for those who participated and contributed their unique imprint. Though thumbprints historically represent individuality and even criminality, here they are equalizers - unable to identify the person’s distinguishing factors.
In a community where reputation, property ownership, and lineage determine influence and power, these works are my idealist hopes for equity. Yet reality is mirrored in the loose weave, cracks, and broken pieces. There's racism, elitism, and a social hierarchy.
Sometimes the pressure of maintaining a certain reputation in a small community is too much. It's internally and even externally explosive. When housing is scarce and to secure the limited resource is dependent on your social connections, how you are perceived matters. It breeds social hierarchy and inequality: justice cannot be found. Though isn't the ultimate desire to be ourselves at all costs? To belong to a community. But what if the cost is a roof over your head? Over your child's?
In a community where reputation, property ownership, and lineage determine influence and power, these works are my idealist hopes for equity. Yet reality is mirrored in the loose weave, cracks, and broken pieces. There's racism, elitism, and a social hierarchy.
Sometimes the pressure of maintaining a certain reputation in a small community is too much. It's internally and even externally explosive. When housing is scarce and to secure the limited resource is dependent on your social connections, how you are perceived matters. It breeds social hierarchy and inequality: justice cannot be found. Though isn't the ultimate desire to be ourselves at all costs? To belong to a community. But what if the cost is a roof over your head? Over your child's?
Community Tea Ceremony
Engagement Project: Emile Norman Arts Foundation Artist Residency 2023 Big Sur, California
The tea ceremony gathered over 150 members of the Big Sur coastal region to meet in nature to encourage gratitude of the land and to foster a connection between people and place. The Tea Ceremony was held as a cumulation of a multi-staged community effort to harvest, process, and shape tea cups from local clay. Local inhabitants joined in the process from digging to finished cup.
The bilingual (Spanish/English) ceremony provided space for the varied local population and visitors. With a land acknowledgement given by Daniela Hinman, who works closely with the local Esselen indigenous tribe, and three rounds of locally grown tea, the emphasis was on inclusion. The ceremony began with a guided mediation based on the alchemy of personal change as mirrored by the ceramic-making process. Three rounds of tea were offered: the 1st to recognize the land, the 2nd to acknowledge neighbors, and the 3rd to honor oneself. After the drinking of the tea, the cups were gathered and returned to the land in which the clay was harvested. The Earth will further compost the intentions set during the ceremony.
The bilingual (Spanish/English) ceremony provided space for the varied local population and visitors. With a land acknowledgement given by Daniela Hinman, who works closely with the local Esselen indigenous tribe, and three rounds of locally grown tea, the emphasis was on inclusion. The ceremony began with a guided mediation based on the alchemy of personal change as mirrored by the ceramic-making process. Three rounds of tea were offered: the 1st to recognize the land, the 2nd to acknowledge neighbors, and the 3rd to honor oneself. After the drinking of the tea, the cups were gathered and returned to the land in which the clay was harvested. The Earth will further compost the intentions set during the ceremony.
Pit Firing Community Gathering
2023 Big Sur, California
With the help of a dozen community members, the locally-harvested clay was shaped into tea cups. With the permission of Big Creek Reserve, the cups and helpers were gathered at Gamboa Beach for a traditional pit firing. Having learned this technique in Mexico, Peery was able to lead the group in the 24 hour process from digging the pit to unburying the final results.
Por La Noche
2022 Big Sur, California
An intimate installation exploring the concepts of thresholds and portals using materials sourced from the natural environment. A threshold can be a point at which one starts to experience something, the moment when something shifts, something is felt. The first step of transformation is the severance of what was before. By entering through a threshold is to move through a portal into the Otherworld. The space of intuition, spirit, mystery, and change exists there. "Threshold" invited participants to enter through a large piece made up of basket shapes (what are you gathering?) hung between redwood trees into a small forest. It was composed of repurposed materials, plant material, locally harvested clay, and gourds-turned-musical instruments.
Home
2022 Big Sur, California
A meandering installation across 10 acres of rural, mountain land in collaboration with Sean Sweeney. Using locally found materials, each artist created site-specific work that explored the meaning of "home." Does a connection with the natural world foster a deeper sense of belonging, therefore a sense of home?
Totems
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As part of the Home installation. A site in a geodesic dome where 4 hanging totems devoted to separate elements of Big Sur were created and installed. Each totem body was created using locally harvested and processed clay.
Breadcrumb Trail
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Part of the Home installation, a trail sprinkled with ceramics made from local clay connecting participants to site-specific work.
Antidote for Undervaluing
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Weekly letters between Sean Sweeney and Peery Sloan: 2015-present
Intimate indoor space within the Home installation.
Intimate indoor space within the Home installation.
Inventive Ancestry Altar
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Included in the "Home" installation.
To respect and acknowledgment those from my artistic family tree. If I were to compose a ancestry list of the creative influences that have shaped me as an artist, this is who and what I would include.
To respect and acknowledgment those from my artistic family tree. If I were to compose a ancestry list of the creative influences that have shaped me as an artist, this is who and what I would include.
