in 2019, while in residence for an Iteration Lab with The School of Making/Thinking in New York, I explored impediments to communication, ones directly related to my own struggles with speaking and communicating.

I set up three scenarios that we explored each day.

1. having a speech impediment: i grew up and eventually went through speech therapy so that i could learn to say my “esses” without making the “th” sound. i have been told i was virtually impossible to understand as a child, though that hasn’t been corroborated.
   the residency process was for people to all lay on their backs and recite tongue twisters together, following each others leads through a variety of options. it led to a piece called, not-surprisingly, Tongue Twister

2. what it’s like to be unheard, or to struggle to be heard
this involved in practice speaking and listening through pillows and led to a work this piece, pillow talking

3. the third project is a physical experiment meant to be done on site. we practiced speaking to one another with water in our mouth. i often feel like my mouth will not form words, that it is too full of potential sound to decide which to make and so is somewhat immobilized by this full feeling.

these works were meant to be shown at Indivisible Gallery but the gallery had to close for the summer for personal reasons.