"Alluvial Bed" responds to Vito Acconci's 1972 performance "Seedbed," in which the artist masturbated beneath a gallery ramp while visitors walked above, his amplified voice filling the space with sexual fantasies. Acconci asserted transgressive power, in a “direct assault on the concept of limits" (Levine, 1977), through fantasies nonconsensually projected onto viewers' bodies. My work excavates what accumulates in the aftermath, as well as what lies beneath: the deposits of culture and experience that settle, compress, and stratify, creating the context for whatever comes next.

 

The materials comprising this installation bear witness to both geologic and human time. Repurposed plywood and lumber references the cycle of construction and demolition, shelter, and built spaces where abuses occur behind closed doors.

 

A graphite quilt motif marks the structure with traces of deliberate human touch, while latex paint forms a membrane that recalls skin, vulnerability, and the body's permeable boundaries. Interference acrylic creates shifting, unstable color—a visual analog for the experience of traumatic memory and the cascading effects of epigenetic violence.

 

Masking tape speaks to the temporary, fleeting, and occlusive, while recycled paper pulp embodies transformation: information broken down and reconstituted into something new, yet bearing traces of its past.

 

The white noise machine introduces a sonic layer that both obscures and recalls Acconci's amplified voice. Rather than broadcasting arousal, it generates an auditory blanket: the sound of interference, of signal lost, of stories that cannot be clearly transmitted. This acoustic element transforms the gallery into a space of muffled testimony, where what isn’t said aloud still resonates.

​

​

Levine, E. (1977). In pursuit of Acconci. Artforum, 15(8), 38-41