Nicki Crock

Fri, May 8, 2020 - 6:30 PM
Sat, Jun 6, 2020 - 3:30 PM

Having moved many times and finding myself feeling only semi-settled, the ideas of home and community are very significant to me. Ignited by this interest in location and movement, I make art about domestic spaces, transition and the search for home. I tell the stories of place and transformation, examining the elements of home, house and community. My mediums are varied; including sculpture, installation and performance, and use both found and constructed materials.

Before COVID-19, I made Packed as an investigation into the curious atmosphere, architecture and sprawling accumulation of suburbia. Knowing that one person’s experience or analysis can only scratch the surface of what that community or home life entails, I invited my own community of artist peers to assist in this exploration. Together we created a few pockets of fantasy, invention and curiosity to hide within the mounded bulk of the piece, conveying the duality of these strange and beautifully engineered neighborhoods.

In the midst of COVID-19 self-isolation, I cannot help but find new context and content in this piece. We are stacked on top of each other, stuck inside, living our own separate lives as best we can, inhabiting these nestled spaces so close to each other, but ultimately on our own. Now rather than limiting the exploration to just a handful of interiors, I think there is value in EVERY home being full of light and fantasy and thoughtfulness. I will be expanding this project in the coming weeks, inviting whoever may be interested to contribute their own magical landscape to sit within a home. Together as a community, we’ll make Packed into something new.

Packed includes artistic contributions from Alexis Zabor, Mark Eberhardt, Nick Stull, Liz Morrison, Miriam Chon, Laurie Ihlenfield , Alex Conrad and Susanna Harris.