Lifeline

Lifeline will be presented in chapters and engage with our waterways as ancestral narrators.  

My work brings us together in awe, wonder and empathy, to reanimate our connection with water’s life force and inspire support for its regeneration as we reflect on the dire state of our waterways around the world. The long terms affects of human inflicted abuse of our vital natural resources can be seen and felt around the world and  our waterways desperately need our support. But the water itself, which is a living a force with animus and intelligence of its own has wisdom to share if we would only attune ourselves to our life-giving, life-sustaining waterways.

I want to support our rivers in telling their stories on their own terms to reanimate our sense of interconnectedness and inspire action through empathy–these rivers have always sustained us and now we must dedicate ourselves to their regeneration in its moment of urgent need.

The project’s title, Lifeline, makes reference to rivers as our lifelines for survival and to the lifelines inscribed in our hands. In Italian, the verb tramandare, “to pass between hands,” is a guiding concept in my work. Throughout history, hands represent truth, honesty, openness, generosity, healing, wisdom, action, communication. 

The lifelines written in our palms symbolize past, present and future. Ancestors mapped the landscapes of rivers and mountains in our palms in relationship to the cosmos.

In Italian, the verb tramandare, “to pass between hands,” is frequently used when locals share stories about the Po.  This is a guiding concept of the project. What will we choose to pass along, from hand to hand, to future generations? 

I am working with teams of local collaborators on a series of works that will culminate in a film, a book project, and a collaborative public artwork. I am seeking to tell sacred water stories that move and transform us, using a wide range of materials and methods to tell these stories in order to engage our senses and hearts.  Currently I am working with two rivers, the Po River - which is Italy’s longest river- and the nearby The Hudson River.

Lifeline is an intertwining of both visual and oral storytelling, weaving together our intricately interconnected lives. Can we learn to become stronger together in the spirit of reciprocity?