Music & Film
Performance
by Ben Brown, Parmela Attariwala, and Roxanne Nesbitt
Mail Art
about the art
This month, Roxanne Nesbitt’s sound film and Christine Shan Shan Hou’s mail art reveal unexpected sounds and visual gestures with work that's grounded in handmade processes, tangible materials, and a sense of touch.
Roxanne began exploring handmade instruments through her dual training as a double bassist and an architect. Her research in acoustics and design fostered a fascination with the ineffable creativity of instrument design and she started to craft clay and metal bells which she suspends and plays with mallets. They are intended to be small, repeatable objects that can be shared, and they ring out in unexpected scales tuned with, in Roxanne’s words, “the intuitive work of the hand.”
Christine's collage art introduces viewers to surprising shapes and combinations, all anchored in the tangible world of physical materials and locations. Creases, cuts, and subtle embroidery punctuations on hand cut paper create a tactile experience, leaving traces of Christine’s personal touch. The accompanying poetry connects the artwork’s surreal visuals to real-life moments, like a visit to the Sperry Glacier.
Through their handmade processes, Roxanne's instruments and Christine's collage art reject the perfectionism of fantasy to ground us in the tangible world.