About

Bloodworks 2 is complex outdoor installation whose total dimensions measure a radius of over 2,000 square feet. It consists of three sections: Blue Box, Colon Chain/Birthing Chair and Heart Totems.

Blue Box consists of two joined wooden packing crates (4′ x 4′ x 8′). These crates are suspended two feet off the ground and hang from the branches of eucalyptus trees. The viewer is invited to step inside these crates to explore the contents within. As the viewer stands inside this blue box, one can feel and hear the tension of the ropes straining to support the weight as it swings slowly back and forth.

The Colon Chain/Birthing Chair, located 100 feet from the Blue Box, is being pulled in two directions, one from above(trees) and one from below (Birthing Chair). As someone steps into the box – a series of ropes extends to stretch the burlap sack, creating a taut almost ripping tension.

The Birthing Chair, fashioned from driftwood sewn together with black thread, sits surrounded by a shallow pond within a nine foot deep hole in the earth.  A pig’s heart, held with hooks and thread, is pulled between the colon chain and the chair.

Five pig hearts, acting as totems, encircle and inscribe the area containing the Blue Box, Colon Chain/Birthing Chair. As part of a performance, Heart Totems, each heart was dissected differntly to display the various chambers. Made from latexes, blood, wood, wax, and silken ribbons, Bloodworks 2 acts as a host offering itself up as food and shelter to nature’s deterioration process.

This piece was in part supported by the UCLA Art Council & the Robert L. Adams Award.