Psychics Reading Sculpture

In 2011 I worked on a project that was in collaboration with Bay Area psychic, Jessica Lanyadoo. I presented Ms. Lanyadoo with artist objects to be read with psychometry or token-object reading. My multimedia installation project Psychics Reading Sculpture began with the participation of twenty women artists who fabricated art objects. Each artist followed a set of parameters, a medium-size piece of paper that could be drawn on, written on, or cut up with scissors, then dipped in ceramic porcelain slip and crumpled or folded. The idea was to transfer some kind of intention, emotion, or trace of the artist. After kiln firing the pieces, the paper burns out, and all that is left is the fragile and ephemeral record of the gesture. The objects are then taken to the psychic to be read and analyzed. While the readings of each object play on themes of absence and presence, ideas pertaining to the intuitive nature of reading art are also raised.

As we approach the 2024 election, women’s reproductive rights are at stake. Considering the symbolic connection between ceramic vessels and women’s bodies, I propose to revisit my Psychics Reading Sculpture project as a way to give agency and harness the power and voice of women. I will offer several public art making workshops at women's health locations in San Francisco. During this art happening, all interested women are invited to create an object. Working with intention, the women can take the opportunity to channel, transfer, and transform the energy of their thoughts and emotions in regards to our bodily autonomy. Each sculpture will be fired, psychically read and analyzed to give voice from the other side/the side of the other. A single-channel video will be presented that shares the psychic readings, artists’ making, and finished objects.