You Speak With Such Reverence

An ongoing project melding community with studio art practice.

I am inspired by a story a friend told me about a lemniscate scar on his shoulder: he and this girl fell in love. It was in Montreal, and they were young. It came to the end of their time in that city, and they had to part ways. They decided to brand each other, so they'd never forget the experience.

It turns out many people have similar stories, or stories where the emotional branding of the heart was just as permanent as the physical act of searing memory into flesh. I am collecting stories centered around how one is marked by love, physically or emotionally, for better or worse. These stories will be shredded and cast into the shape of body parts that'll be shaped and altered by the stories contained therein. Some pieces will be branded, others, covered in pieces of the stories or images from the stories.

This literal body of work will be exhibited in the 2011 NBCCD Advanced Studies grad show, date and location TBA. However, I believe this work is too large in scope to fit comfortably within those parameters. A continued exploration and elaboration of this project is necessary, and the installation of that work will be my first truly independent body of sculpture.

If you wish to submit your stories of love, please email to: reverence.celine@gmail.com

Submissions are open until May 2011.