The Alchemy of Gravity

Artist Statement

The Alchemy of Gravity transforms the gallery into a surreal cavern of weight, light, and sound. Paper maché rocks, rendered in shades of blue, are suspended from the ceiling and scattered across the floor, inviting visitors to both look upward and bend down to interact. Some rocks are unexpectedly heavy while others, though large, are surprisingly light. This inversion of expectation serves as a metaphor for the unseen burdens we all carry—the truth that no one can ever fully know the weight another person holds, and that appearances often mislead.

As a queer woman, mother, and wife, my practice is deeply informed by lived experience and the dualities of struggle and nurture, adversity and joy. My broader work centers on transformation: reclaiming discarded or overlooked materials and reshaping them into monumental forms that honor resilience and the beauty of imperfection. This installation continues that practice, using paper, plaster, and salvaged matter to build rocks that are tactile, strong, playful, and heavy with meaning.

Throughout history, stones have been both the foundation upon which homes and communities are built, and the weapon used to enforce exclusion and violence. They appear in religious texts as instruments of punishment, and are evoked in contemporary political rhetoric to threaten Queer lives. They also anchor pivotal moments of liberation, such as the Stonewall Riots. By working with rocks as form and metaphor, this installation acknowledges that duality: their capacity to wound and to shelter, to oppress and to resist. The rocks become reminders of the weight of history and the enduring strength required to move through it.

Visitors are encouraged to stack and balance the rocks into cairn-like formations, creating a temporary and shifting landscape. Immersed in a purple glow from shifting colored lights and surrounded by an ambient soundscape that recalls the echoes of a cavern, the space invites both contemplation and connection. By balancing, moving, and stacking the rocks together, participants experience the work not as solitary figures but as members of a shared environment—reminded that while the weight each person carries is unique, collective presence and support can make those burdens feel lighter.

The installation also features a community response component, inviting students to photograph, write, and display the things they are coping with. This act of giving form to invisible struggles allows private experiences to become part of a visible, communal constellation of resilience. In this way, the work extends beyond personal narrative to address universal questions of mental health, solidarity, and the fragile yet powerful ways we hold one another up.

In addition to the interactive rocks, wall sculptures resembling stone surfaces sprout otherworldly plants, suggesting that even in the heaviest places, life and growth persist. Together, these elements create a space where gravity is reimagined, heaviness is shared, and transformation becomes possible. The Alchemy of Gravity affirms that although we may never fully know another’s burdens, through art and community we can create spaces of hope, connection, and collective balance—spaces where weight becomes both acknowledged and, in some small way, lightened.