“As Ros and I grappled with how to express our anxiety over accelerating climate change, we focused on the impact of weather on one’s psyche and on efforts to understand the alarming data. The result appears to be an “under the weather” weather station. A storm of sculptural forms, words, punctuation marks, and international meteorology symbols burn, freeze, bleed, blow, and dislocate a weather vane, the station, and probes of inquiry. . .. , ice corps, weather vein, and the station’s “instruments” are pieces around forecasting, discovery, and measurement – recording how these things can and can’t reflect our experience of confusion and awe. Real and imagined atmospheric conditions and states of mind unfold as do the perceptions of our role in the process.
The materials used in this show are repurposed texts and materials from both Nancy and Ros’ studios and from the language of weather reporting and forecasting. The process of recycling makes for a kaleidoscopic installation – bits and pieces from one piece may recur , re-iterate and re-generate in others, thus creating a visual and verbal vocabulary that accelerates and spins in and out of comprehension.
When I was making a model for one of my sculptures, my husband came in and said, “That looks like a hat”. This triggered the idea of making “under the weather” hats for the Intemperate Zone installation as a way of emphasizing the effect of the weather on our states of mind and engaging the public as a’fashion” models. In addition we invited a tarot card reader to pose as a weather therapist and provide personal forecasts. These informal interactions were complimented by Ros’s reading one of her poems as she created a rhythmic repeating echo of the phrases.”
-Nancy Selvage
