Directed by Paige Barnes
Oxbow Gallery, Seattle | July 5–28, 2019
As costume artist for Paige Barnes’ multidisciplinary performance MOTHER, I created a sculptural jacket that responded to the project’s central themes of pulse, presence, and emotional intelligence. Drawing from Paige’s background as both choreographer and acupuncturist, the piece explored how the unseen — energy, feeling, breath — could be made visible through form.
In addition to the jacket, I constructed two custom textile elements: a black fabric tube and a green screen fabric tube. These tools were designed for integration with live performance and video mapping. The black tube referenced shadow and the yin space — a metaphor for emotional and energetic depth in pulse reading. The green screen tube served as a malleable form onto which video textures and elemental imagery could be projected, allowing the body to become a site of transformation.
Paige’s residency wove together movement, pulse reading, sound design, and visual experimentation — a meditation on the feminine and the unseen as generative forces. It was a privilege to contribute to this richly interdisciplinary process and to support Paige’s vision through material language.
“I’m calling this residency Mother, a dedication to feminine aspects such as receptivity, creation, intuition, softness, care, and emotion… The pulse is our moving blood that interconnects and nourishes our whole body. Through the pulse, I find a place for the emotional body to be seen.”
— Paige Barnes
Collaborators:
Dance, Direction, Video Art: Paige Barnes
Computer Science & Sound Design: David Siah
Lighting Design: Amiya Brown
Costume Design: Dani Blackwell
Live Music: Evan Flory-Barnes
Performer: Nadia Losonsky
Photography: Jen Au
