Riva Weinstein

THRESHOLD

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I walk. I wander. I find. I make. I make meaning.

 

Collecting what I find at my feet, I compose site specific installations that contemplate and celebrate life.

 

It is a time of climate change, fracking, clear cutting and corporatization of land, water and air. A time of terrorism towards humanity and Earth.

 

At times like these walking - literally, metaphorically and spiritually - is a subversive act. A practice of hope and of peace.

 

In Threshold, I invite the viewer to pause between two worlds - inner and outer, quotidian and extraordinary -  to consider the fragility of nature, and life.

 

As the spiritual entry way to the Japanese stroll gardens, the Tea House represents a space that is neither here nor there. Betwixt and between, it is a passageway from the everyday to the sublime.

 

Threshold seeks to create a moment of pause, to inspire awareness of this liminal space as we leave daily life behind, and enter into a meticulously crafted cultural environment designed to elicit a heightened experience of nature.

 

Mirroring aesthetic principles of the Japanese garden tradition, drawing attention to details that point to a universal view, Threshold invites visitors to consider the beauty of individual objects as well as the fragility of nature - and life.

 

Materials collected from a lifetime of walking have been carefully curated for this site-specific installation. Box frames made from reclaimed wood flooring contain a painted mango pit, unidentified pods and forest floor detritus. Glass jars hold feathers and skulls. Bones, bark, branches and more hang from jute and string, metaphorically pointing to what precariously hangs in the balance – the natural world, itself. 

This particular threshold is symbolic of a larger issue, too. Standing in peril at the precipice of environmental collapse, the future of our planet depends on our turning a liminal experience into positive transformation - moving from ignorance to knowledge; acceptance to action; ambiguity, disinterest and denial to actionable change to ensure environmental sustainability, clean water and air, biodiversity and life itself.