ASHLEY’S WORLD - RISD Museum 2021
2 channel video + immersive installation
Ashley's World
is an ongoing multidisciplinary project in which I embody my alter ego, Ashley, an eccentric spiritual healer. In this project, I explore the drastic measures that people take when trying to heal and find faith in an absence of organized religion. Ashley is a quirky, flawed character who invents her own absurdist and comedic spiritual practices. Ashley is desperately seeking meaning in her life through absurdist measures. This project was partially realized in an immersive video installation at RISD Museum in 2021, as part of my graduate thesis work. It is currently being expanded upon in the form of video, painting, sculpture, and writing.
“Spirituality is hot right now. I am fascinated by how it plays out in capitalist society, technology, on social media, in sexy mysticism-themed tattoos. A major theme of the Ashley project is seeking answers outside oneself and the absurdity of this impossible, never ending task. I grew up Jewish, and I think that being surrounded by religion in my youth influenced my interest in faith and an obsessive questioning of existence. Ashley is surrounded by her spirit guides, her wildest fantasies, her psychological regressions. She has an angel guide who lives in a miniature locker. She is haunted by her love for 90’s Leonardo DiCaprio. This character has been an outlet to work through things that I’m going through, but in an exaggerated way. It’s cathartic.” https://antemag.com/2021/01/25/21-artists-to-watch-in-2021-part-2-of-2021s-movers-and-shakers/
