Mary Babcock
Breaking Ground, 2015
hand-stitched and laminated household wax paper, thread, cotton fiber, hair 12’ x 32’ x 32’ as shown (Schaefer International Gallery)
Inspired by the Buddhist concept of groundlessness, the work is both a reflection on the natural world of which we are part and a meditation on the territory of our minds. It speaks of the quiet fracturing of false ideologies that happens gradually and naturally under the light of awareness.
Mary Babcock
Oh, Columbia (with detail), 2019
installation with hand-stitched and laminated household wax paper, thread, salt 12’ x 24’ x 24’ as shown (Oxygen Art Center)
Referencing the flooding of the historical town of Vanport, OR - a largely African American community- the work is intended as a cautionary tale regarding the impacts of reckless greed, drawing parallels to current global existential threats and to our apparent acquiescence with climate apartheid.
Mary Babcock
Lotic Sea (with detail), 2022
installation with hand-stitched and laminated household wax paper, thread, salt 14' x 14' x 24' as shown (East Hawaii Cultural Center)
Lotic: a term referencing rapidly moving fresh water. The work questions our understanding of borders in light of the rapidly changing topographies presented by glacial melts and sea level rise, and challenges discourses that prioritize economies over communities and ecologies. Details show needle-pricked Pacific islands and hand-stitched articulation of Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) that overshadow discourses surrounding them.
Mary Babcock
ʻOlaʻa (with detail), 2022
hand-stitched and laminated household wax paper, thread 84" x 144"
Patterned after aerial mappings of vulnerable ohia-lehua forests- keystone tree of Hawaii’s native forests and watershed - used by scientists work to uncover the vectors in the spread of Rapid Ohia Death. The work explores the dual edge of human intervention.
Mary Babcock
Of rocks and ice, 2024
handstitched and lamninate household wax paper 16’ x 20’
Created at the Baer Art Center (Iceland), the work explores Iceland's undulating stone seascape and our diminutive status in relation to the power of earth processes and geological time.
Mary Babcock
177 no. 1, detail, 2022
salvaged fishing nets and lines collected across the Pacific 41" x 43" x 3"
Based off a spectrum analysis of line from “177”, by Marshallese musician Tarines Abo and performed for the fiftieth anniversary of the Bravo test which devastated the Rongelap Atoll (Republic of Marshall Islands). “When will I be released from my suffering that you do not understand”
Mary Babcock
177 no.1, 2022
salvaged fishing nets and lines collected across the Pacific 41" x 43" x 3"
Based off a spectrum analysis of line from “177”, by Marshallese musician Tarines Abo and performed for the fiftieth anniversary of the Bravo test which devastated the Rongelap Atoll (Republic of Marshall Islands). “When will I be released from my suffering that you do not understand”
Mary Babcock
10° 20′ 32” N, 2021
Reclaimed fishing nets and ropes gathered across the Pacific 44" x 98" x 3"
Inspired by the drift route of a “ghost boat” loaded with $80 million worth of cocaine that washed up on Ailuk Atoll (Rep. of the Marshall Islands), the work explores disparities inherent within global capitalism and the diminutive status of humans relative to the increasing powers of the nature
Mary Babcock
11° 4’ 50’’ N, 2021
Reclaimed fishing nets/ropes, aluminum, Lucite, deep sea leader line 92" x 44" x 3"
1° 4’ 50’’ references Castle Bravo crater (Republic of the Marshall Islands). Well below the ocean warming danger zone, nuked ships are sites of unexpected coral biodiversity. The work reflects on the striking resilience of ecosystems that are nevertheless dangerously threatened by warming seas.
Mary Babcock
1°55’30” N(Self Portrait as Atoll), 2017
Salvaged nets and line, maps, deep sea leader line 68" x 96" x 3"
1° 55' 30" N travels midway through the Maldives, a gathering of atolls located in the Indian Ocean, situated in the Arabian Sea. This country faces the threat of resubmergence back into the waters within our children’s lifetimes due to climate change driven by our greed and mass consumption. Patterend after an abstracted image of my own body underwater, I become the atolls in the act of dissolution.
