Breaking Open #1 , 2015
35 x 62 in (h x w)
Photography (documenting endurance performance)

“Breaking Open” – A body of work including:
An endurance work, three-channel video projection, fabric and sound; featuring the recorded stories of various women.

(Both INTREPID I & INTREPID II were performed inside of this installation)

During my time as Resident Healing Artist for the New Day Campaign I was commissioned to create an installation for an exhibition entitled “First the Pain” curated by Peter Bruun.

This installation was an immersive sensory experience in which I built vinyl screens that hung from the
ceiling and created a labyrinth of fabric, appearing like ocean waves.

Prior to the installation I completed an endurance piece, which I filmed with the help of a crew over a 17hr period. The endurance piece was projected onto the vinyl screen in the center, sandwiched by two video works I created of tranquil nature scenes. The fabric in the space mirrored the over 100-yard spiral of fabric pictured in the video/endurance piece.

The projection explores issues of pain, trauma, contraction and expansion through the act of symbolically (and somewhat literally) ingesting a
100-yard spiral of white fabric, then regurgitating that spiral in red. This was an exploration of pain and how it is often the precursor to awakening.

Coupled with this intense imagery, the more tranquil and quiet images of nature projected on the two adjacent vinyl screens are reminders that even in moments of extreme challenge, there is a stillness, a peace, that is ever-present.

The sound in this installation permeates and fills the space with the voices of women sharing intimate stories of pain, addiction, trauma, healing, expansion, mental health, wellness, human connection and revelation; their voices all emerging from different areas of the room.

“Intrepid I” and “Intrepid II” are performed at the center of this space within the labyrinth of fabric, and amongst
the three simultaneous projections. This mirroring of spirals within spirals are like the layers of an onion or the series of spirals found both molecularly (DNA double helix or the spirals made by subatomic particles when they collide) and galactically (a tropical storm on the Earth’s surface or a galaxy in space) throughout the multiverse.

More from Phylicia Ghee

8:46 , 2020
179.8 x 320 cm (h x w)
HD video / color / sound / 08:46
Phylicia Ghee
Genetic Memory , 2018
142 x 119 x 3 in (h x w x d)
Quilt; Photographs printed on fabric, Hair (Locs from “Grounding Ceremony”), traditional Mudcloth, Cotton Fabric & Batting, Hand & Machine Sewing, Hand Quilting, My Mother’s Brain Scans, Driftwood
Phylicia Ghee
Grandma , 2022
44.3 x 77 in (h x w)
Portrait of my Grandmother
Phylicia Ghee
Breaking Open #1 , 2015
35 x 62 in (h x w)
Photography (documenting endurance performance)
Phylicia Ghee
Grounding Ceremony #3 , 2011
36.4 x 148 in (h x w)
Panoramic Composite Photograph, Documentation of Rite-of-passage ritual performance
Phylicia Ghee