Getting a chance to spend 3 weeks at Elsewhere was an incredible experience. Unlike other residency experiences you can not really plan what you want to do in advance. The concept of the space is that you come in look around and then proposal a project based on what you see and of course at the time what the creator of the residency approved. At the time George Sheer was the director of the space and the grandson of the who left this building and all it’s contents to the family. So his connection to the materials contained was greatly respected. You can read about the history of the building and the museum and residency online, but as it pertains to me and my art practice, was profound. Hidden among all the plastic toys and ribbons, books, china, used clothes and anything else you might imagine finding in a thrift shop owned by a elderly woman who had become a hoarder was a collect of jewelry, costume and otherwise, just sitting there untouched, often in disrepair and tangled beyond recognition.

It reminded me of my own grandmother, and our relationship and a story that I had been told about myself as a 5 or 6 year old, crawling into my grandmother’s bed and asking her “When you’re ‘deaded’ can can I have all your jewels?”

I was not really sure what I was going to do with the stuff at the start rather then sort them into color ways and untangle and preserve the pieces that were still in good condition. But as I took apart the broken necklaces and single earrings I started to play with the idea of weaving into a sculptural piece. The Museum was about to undergo a huge construction project to make it better to accommodate artists all year long, and much of the work already there was going to to have to be removed from the walls and physical structure of the building so by making is a manageable size it would ensure that my piece would not immediately be dismantled and integrated into another resident’s work.

With my allowance for supplies from outside the building I purchased some colored wire and started to wrap strands of pearls and plastic beads around the spokes of a bike wheel. I found a pearl collar and all I could think about was how I wanted to just turn all this lusciousness into a giant set of labia. I was a little worried that the idea was risque. After all the museum caters to families and children and some spaces would not be open to this kind of symbolism. Needless to say it turned out well, and was greeted by visitors to the museum and the area where I was working with amusement and fun. Girls taking selfies with it on their head like a chapeaux to dancing with it in front of their own bits.

Although I did inherit my grandmother’s jewels after her death, she didn’t really have the same kind of bobbles, I found in the materials at Elsewhere. After leaving the residency I have continued to look for cheap broken jewelry items and continue to make vagazzels off and on.

From the “widows vagazzel” that plays a recording of the merry widow waltz to my “Lay back and think of your cuntry” that plays a sound clip of Rosanne Barr’s 1990 version of the National Anthem