Alice Marie Perreault
One Step Removed: Bandanas/Face Coverings and Home
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"Bandanas are part of my daily ritual. They have been important objects because they act as filters for my son. I've wanted to work the bandanas into an installation for a while. I liked pairing them with the doors I used for this show. The rose fold worked well for the door knob hardware and the shape of the lotus fold, fit the door hinges well (See below).
When coronavirus was revealed early in the year, a lot of people began wearing bandanas and other types of face coverings. People became more aware of their own mortality and the vulnerability of those they love. And for the first time since my son's birth, I felt a gap narrow, a separating step removed. Many in my invisible culture felt a similar shift.
People's daily practices were changing because people were dying from Covid19. A conscientiousness arose in the country and it was similar to my awareness. Their new practices were my old practices: Mask wearing, hand cleaning, social distancing, disinfecting surfaces etc. My family shut down before it was a state order. The danger, to me, became obvious, early."
-Perreault
When coronavirus was revealed early in the year, a lot of people began wearing bandanas and other types of face coverings. People became more aware of their own mortality and the vulnerability of those they love. And for the first time since my son's birth, I felt a gap narrow, a separating step removed. Many in my invisible culture felt a similar shift.
People's daily practices were changing because people were dying from Covid19. A conscientiousness arose in the country and it was similar to my awareness. Their new practices were my old practices: Mask wearing, hand cleaning, social distancing, disinfecting surfaces etc. My family shut down before it was a state order. The danger, to me, became obvious, early."
-Perreault
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"One Step Removed is an Installation of meticulously painted, and constructed objects. It was shown at Flux Art Space in Long Beach in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic was exposed in the United States. The anchoring body for this installation is a sculpture that gives the Installation its name. This sculpture is made from two doors: An exterior glass-paned door that I removed from my art studio and an interior, flat-faced door that I took from inside my house, from my daughter's bedroom.
The two doors intersect and this intersection provides the balance necessary for both to stand or “float” cantilevered in space so that the much lighter, hollow paneled door supports the, heavy, solid, fir wood door. The bandanas are the life blood through the show. These bandanas, worn by my son, form a lotus garden. In their folded format they are one step removed from their original purpose, not unlike the doors that were removed from my home that became a sculpture and a real, living lotus garden. The smaller sculptures and mixed media paintings combine images of the bandanas, their patterns and, involve my son's medical supplies that are no longer used as they were intended, marking another step removed. Living one step removed from the general population and then another and so on, is what it is to be us. The rest of the world, during Covid-19, is now experiencing something similar." -Perreault 
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One Step Removed was shown at Flux Art Space in Long Beach, CA.
The Tender Touch of an Exceptional Motherhood written by Lara Salmon click on this link to read article |
