4-day durational performance, clay, mirror, 2014. Object dimension: 82” L x 28” W x 28” H. Inspired by ancient spaces used to access the spirits of the deceased, I built a vessel around my body over a four-day period and enclosed myself inside upon completion. I placed a mirror above my face and over the opening of the vessel. Within, the conditions were damp and cold since the clay retained moisture, and the only air circulating was my own breath. I lay inside for five hours, and attempted to use the mirror to perform necromancy, an ancient form of divination used to communicate with the dead. (No one answered.)
4-day durational performance, clay, mirror, 2014. Object dimension: 82” L x 28” W x 28” H.
Durational performance, clay, mirrors, 2015. Object dimension: 85” L x 35” W x 35” H. Over five days, I built a vessel around my body with an outline of my silhouette at the top of the form. After the vessel had dried completely, I revisited the piece a month later. During the two hour gallery reception, I filled in my silhouette with clay coils which began to slump and collapse over my body as I enclosed myself inside. I placed small mirrors over my eyes and lay silently observing. The vessel became both record keeper and amplifier of each viewer's interactions. Not only could I feel the sound vibrations, but I could sense the presence of each person passing or hovering over me by the subtle cold air that filled the space.
video still, durational performance, clay, mirrors, 2015. Object dimension: 85” L x 35” W x 35” H.
Durational performance, clay, mirrors, 2015. Object dimension: 85” L x 35” W x 35”H.
5-day durational performance, clay, sound, 2015. Object dimensions: 63” L x 50” x 45” H. Over five days, I built a bell-shaped vessel to accommodate two people. Upon completion, I invited Harriotte, a blind singer and musician, to sing to me while I sat inside with her. As she sang and experimented with different vocal pitches and tones, the sound inside of the vessel began to "ring", making it vibrate like a bell. The vessel became an instrument and created a space in which to experience the enfolding properties of the resonating sound. For me as the receiver, my whole body was vibrating as I was surrounded by the vibrations her voice created inside. Though this exchange, I was able to experience another form of physical interaction beyond sight and touch. Harriotte, described her experience in Vessel III this way: “...I’m noticing when my mouth closes, then the pitch actually vibrates through the bones in my head...It zings right through my ears, like, one side of my head to the other...It sort of reminds me when you look into a very bright light, it’s kind of the sound equivalent. If you’re bathed in a very bright light, you don’t have very much orientation, so the sound when it’s so full…" (Harriotte Hurie). At this point, words failed and she began to sing again.
5-day durational performance, clay, sound, 2015. Object dimensions: 63” L x 50” x 45” H.
5-day durational performance, clay, sound, 2015. Object dimensions: 63” L x 50” x 45” H.
6-day durational performance, clay, sound, 2015. Object dimensions: 70” L x 68” W x 34” H. Over six days, I built a vessel to explore the encapsulating qualities of sound. After, I lay inside while listening to songs sung by a local Threshold Choir (a choir which sings to the ill and dying to bring comfort and ease toward the end of life). The songs were amplified by the vessel and surrounded me as I contemplated the healing qualities of sound in an isolated space. After the performance was completed I destroyed the vessel within five minutes.
6-day durational performance, clay, sound, 2015. Object dimensions: 70” L x 68” W x 34” H.
Artist Statement
Clay is skin, flesh, and bone. It bruises, bends, and breaks. Like the body, it is constantly in flux, able to disintegrate into dust, or calcify into permanence. For me, clay is an extension of myself as a material, and as a means to explore both the fragility of the body in life, as well as its endurance in death.
Vessels is an ongoing series of large-scale site-specific sculptures investigating the bodies and spaces we create, occupy, and leave behind. Inspired by ancient and contemporary burial structures created to honor, protect, preserve, and guide the deceased to the afterlife, each vessel is hand-built coil by coil following the parameters of my own body. Throughout the week-long building process, using anywhere from 600 to 800 lbs of clay, I eventually entomb myself. From within, I use the vessel as a space to further understand my own body and the connections I have to others through isolation, darkness, sound, and vibration. The vessels become potentially transformative portals to contemplate the edges of bodily existence. After my experience inside, I destroy the vessel in minutes and reclaim the material, giving it another life.
-- Marisa Finos
Bio
Marisa Finos is a sculptor and multimedia artist currently based in Massachusetts. Her sculptures and performances seek to explore thresholds of consciousness, body, and space. Her work draws inspiration from her own reflections on the experience of death and dying in contemporary culture, and serves as a platform to engage in conversations that challenge current attitudes about mortality.
Finos’ research into various concepts of the afterlife, ancient and contemporary funerary practices, burial structures, mourning rituals, and bodily preservation and decay, informs the objects she creates. Finos is also greatly influenced by women’s traditional roles throughout history as ushers of individuals into both life and death, as caretakers of the dying and handlers of the dead, and as creators of mourning rituals and objects.
Finos earned her MFA in Craft/Material Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University, and her BFA in Ceramics from the University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth. She has participated in residencies at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Vermont Studio Center, and Arteles Creative Center in Finland.