Phylicia Ghee, 2020 Sondheim Artscape Finalist Exhibition;

"WE ARE THE INFINITE, DISGUISED AS THE FINITE"
July 6, 2020 - Ongoing

Visit & walk through the VIRTUAL EXHIBITION

This exhibition is an exploration in both grief and self-directed healing. It all evolved from a desire to see liberation for black lives. To see us healing and thriving; to honor those we have lost. The energy of transition and death is definitely present in the space, but it is in conversation with this idea of windows and portals. For me, the video works on the two opposite walls, “The Site of Memory” and “8:46” function like windows into moments from my life. Most of those moments were documented during this pandemic period; gardening with my Grandfather, paying reverence to my ancestors, writing prayers for my mother, making herbal remedies, exploring how I care for myself and how we care for one another during these deep challenges and moments of grief and bereavement.

The large-scale earth spiral “The Immeasurable Truth”, made of sea salt and compost from my Grandfather’s garden — which he made with dried leaves from this past Fall — appears to flow in or out of the alcove in the center of the room. This is to reference the veil between worlds; the physical and the spiritual. It’s not evident whether the spiral is going or coming. This simultaneous ebb and flow, this collapsing of time and space, to me, is like a complex poetry representing the lives and the unknown truths of history living in the soil and in the sea; making manifestation both in this realm and beyond. So it’s not so much a question of living or dying, but of traversing physical, psychological and spiritual realms;  and living on through re-memory with a cyclical understanding of life. In this space I wanted to be able to touch on the inter-dimensionality and spiritual power of black lives, and to honor black, brown and indigenous lives ripped from us by the continual violences committed against us, both presently and historically. 

“WE ARE THE INFINITE, DISGUISED AS THE FINITE”. This title functions as a declaratory statement, a reclamation and a threat. In other words, you cannot kill us or erase us; you cannot silence us, we are infinite, we will thrive. 

I share various photographs documenting a rite of passage and hair cutting ceremony entitled “Grounding Ceremony” in addition to a mixed media (in-progress) quilt & collaboration with my Grandmother entitled “Genetic Memory”. My hair, which I cut during “Grounding Ceremony” ( and its seen laying on the earth beside me in the panoramic photograph on the left as you first walk into the space) is sewn into the quilt (7 years later) amongst photographs of my family and my mother’s brain scans printed on fabric, framed by Bògòlanfini and hung on drift wood. This demonstrates how narratives, materials & elements continue over various works, sometimes spanning years. 

I created five new works for this exhibition. One of my favorite moments in the exhibition is a photo I took of my Grandmother, called “Grandma”. It’s situated above a poem by Lucille Clifton entitled, “I am accused of tending to the past.” This makes me think of my lineage and of black women being at the forefront of tending to falsified histories and constant erasures, but remaining strong in the midst of challenges sprouting from seeds they did not plant.  

"8:46 " is a visual prayer named for the approx. amount of time the officer kneeled on George Floyd's neck ultimately killing him. Moving images that overlap are anchored by one image depicting me breathing. Other images of moments from my life both during the pandemic, and some from years prior, are layered together creating a montage of inherited and learned restorative healing practices. These are seeds of longevity, acts of protection, catharsis and self, family, community and cultural preservation. These overlapping moving images are overlaid by the sound of me breathing and praying for 8 minutes and 46 seconds.  

Essentially this is 8 minutes and 46 seconds of reverence. A visual and auditory medicine for times of grief. 

My hope is that by breathing for this time, this encourages the viewer to breathe as well; activating the parasympathetic nervous system and shifting the internal state of the body from one of stress to one of calm. This is also cleansing, clearing and oxygenating the cells, ultimately creating a positive effecting the heart, the brain, the digestive system and the immune system. This is reinforcing that we need to be well to show up fully in this revolution (breathing, taking care of self etc.), especially in the face of such brutality, sickness and hatred.


Links to full video works from the show:
"8:46"
"The Site of Memory"

More about Sondheim, and my experience creating this virtual exhibition, published online at BmoreArt:

The 2020 Sondheim Prize Finalists: Limitations and strategies for art prizes and digital exhibitions during a global pandemic

"Grandma / i am accused of tending to the past" Portrait of my Grandmother
with poem by Lucille Clifton (displayed in vinyl lettering below photograph)
20"X30" Photograph, archival pigment on photo rag paper
June 2020

Description:

This is one of my favorite portraits I've taken of my Grandmother. She is the most pure, and unconditionally loving woman I've ever met. Her love is all-pervasive. It has been a gift to be her granddaughter. And my Grandmother, like so many black women, has worked and worked and worked. She is still working as I write this, and she has devoted the essence of her being to caring for us.

I coupled this work with the poem, “I am accused of tending to the past” because this photograph also speaks to a wider story about black women; and about our elders who have lived through so much; seen so much.

This image makes me think of my lineage and of black women being at the forefront of tending to falsified histories and constant erasures; persevering and preserving memories and personal histories, in the midst of challenges sprouting from seeds they did not plant.

Black women exist outside of societal and historical constructs. We are not to be collapsed into stereotypes, labels and archetypes of strength, servitude or over-sexualization. We will not be written off as angry or oversensitive. Black women have an emotional and spiritual intelligence that is unmatched. We are not invisible. We are invaluable. Black women are unbounded. We’ve always shown up; and yet we too have softness. We deserve reverence & regard. We are multidimensional.

“Khepri: I am because You are” A series honoring my Grandfather, Ghee
2019, Various Sizes, Photography, Mixed Media (scarabs, gold ink, handwriting) & Sound 

Description:
From the time I was a child, I’ve wanted to tell my Grandfather’s story. He is who I aspired to be like as an artist.  I created this series to honor him. His persistence, his passion and his resilience. 

I question what happens to our elder, black artists, when no one is looking for them? When they aren’t a part of the “collective memory” archived in institutions and museums? What happens to the art of those who didn’t get to practice their art or who struggled to do so? Does that work die with them, or does it find new life in the next generation? 

In this way, my Grandfather has been the torch bearer. The holder of genetic memory. His father’s story demonstrated a history of hoarded traumas, disempowerment and repressed memories of empty promises that never equaled societal acceptance or success; but rather recycled themselves as demeaning behaviors toward a son who unknowingly, but instinctively, carried forth his father’s dreams. 

A part of my life path is to carry my Grandparents with me, as they have carried me. To shine light on my Grandfather’s story, which has at times been dimmed by life’s challenges, prejudices, abuse and obligations but never extinguished. My Grandfather’s resilience, presence, love for his art and his family is inextinguishable. My Grandparents, who met at 13 and married at 18 are our unbreakable foundation. 

May the world see them, acknowledge him; his art and his story.

"Notes from the Ancestors: Tools for Edification" (2022)
Multi-sensory installation

Images 1 - 3

As an extension of the 8:46 video, the installation Notes from the Ancestors: Tools for Edification uses
various herbs (many significant in black herbalism, agriculture, and botany) to invoke both the practices
of herbalism and root work, as well as those who practiced these healing traditions throughout our
collective history.

Installed on the pulpit of the church, Notes from the Ancestors: Tools for Edification explores the
sacredness of care, the importance of family and community, and the sheer ingenuity, genius, and
resilience we have always had as Black people. We have kept one another alive through these traditions.
This installation uses texture, sound, smell, handwritten text, time-specific furnishings, and hanging
herbs to touch on the circular nature of time. These elements act as a conduit of communication
between thresholds and act as vehicles to transport the viewer through varying timelines into a
dimensional space of memory as it intersects with present reality.

"Breaking Open" 
Three-channel video projection on constructed vinyl screens, fabric & immersive sound.  Area 405, Baltimore, MD

Images 4 - 6

During my time as Resident Healing Artist for the New Day Campaign I created an installation entitled "Breaking Open". This installation was  an immersive sensory experience in which I built vinyl screens that hung from the the ceiling. On these screens, I projected a three-chanel video piece and covered the floor in a labrynth of fabric. The fabric in the space mirrored the over 100 yard spiral of fabric pictured in the video piece.  The sound in this installation fills the space with voices emerging from different areas of the room. "Intrepid I" and "Intrepid II" are performed at the center of this space within the labrynth of fabric, and amongst the three simultaneous projections. Sound for this space included a spoken piece "Sometimes We're Hardly Here" written, spoken & recorded for this installation by Natalie Stewart, as well as various personal stories recorded & spoken by 10 different women & men, surrounding issues of pain, mental health, wellness, self care, connection and human consciousness.


"If A Story Is Seed..."
Soil, 7ft X 7ft, The Eubie Blake Cultural Center, Baltimore, MD 

Images 7 - 10

“If a story is seed, then we are its soil.” – Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D.
 
Dirt and soil are deeply connected to everything that nourishes us. Soil calls up connection to roots, growth, foundation, history, birth, death and the life cycle. I created a spiral of words in soil covering a 7ft square on the floor of the gallery space. This piece is deeply connected to impermanence, the idea of soil both having a memory and holding the memory & stories of the land (and those who once walked that land). The piece changed over time as the soil dried out during the duration of the exhibition. 

 

"INTREPID 0" [Solo Performance] 
(My first performance of the INTREPID series)
“I release all attachments, I embrace detachment” Charcoal on 12’X12’ paper
Ritual performance
June 2014

“INTREPID I” [Solo Performance inside of “Breaking Open” installation]
“I give thanks” Charcoal on 9’X9’ paper
2:42min EXCERPT from 11:30min video documentation of ritual performance 

"INTREPID II" [Group Performance inside of “Breaking Open” installation]
Performed by: Phylicia Ghee, Cheryl Ashley, Catrina Caldwell, Karene McLaurin & Karla Benedict.
5:42min EXCERPT from 20:32 min video documentation of ritual performance
 ***Dedicated to Karla Benedict, with love & sisterhood*** 

--- Special Thank You to those who contributed to the Sound with Audio recordings of personal stories: Natalie Stewart, Amber Carroll Santibanez, Ashley Williams, Anna Davis, Caelyn Sommerville, Cee Cee Ghee (Grandmother), Ghee (Grandfather), Denitra Isler, Karen Ghee (Mother), Kriss Mincey, Missy Smith & Morgan Baker

—————

INTREPID is a ritual performance series in which I am using my body to move in a spiral formation while writing a series of repeated affirmations in charcoal on a 9 by 9' sheet of paper. This ritual uses movement and repetition to build new framework in the brain and initiate new neural connections. The vision for INTREPID came during a time when I was studying dance, neural plasticity, alchemy, and subatomic particle collisions. When subatomic particles collide, they form spirals. The spiral is also an important family symbol for my grandfather. It is found in the double helix of our DNA and can be found in nature, both molecularly and galactically.

My body, never leaving the paper, slowly erases the words of the affirmations I am writing, and they begin to cover my skin. In this way, I am stepping into my intentions in a very literal way. What I write is ultimately erased, although not completely. The beginning of the spiral of affirmations can still be read faintly. This performance challenges me not only to accept the impermanence of life but also to find and connect with that which is ever present, can never be erased, and never dies. Along with my affirmations, the 9 × 9' paper holds my fingerprints and the unique markings made by my body. The 9 × 9' paper holds a story of interconnectedness. A story of who I was and who I became. It is a portrait of myself, my ancestors, and the larger whole.

A fire in my apartment three years prior to the first performance of INTREPID opened my eyes to exploring charcoal as a tool and as a residue of fire. Charcoal not only carries with it the combustive, alchemical energy of fire into the work, but it also serves as a ritual tool and purifier of water (our bodies being up to 60% water). The affirmations I write in charcoal are transcribed onto my skin. My body, never leaving the paper, slowly erases the words of the affirmation and they begin to cover my skin. In this way I am stepping into my intentions in a very literal way. So, like a Buddhist sand mandala, INTREPID also challenges me to both accept the impermanence of life and to find that which is ever present.

The INTREPID II was my first time sharing ritual performance collaboratively in this way. We all influenced each other’s healing and spiritual evolution. My journey with these four amazing women has continually informed and influenced the way I’ve lived my life since and the sensitivity & compassion I have for those journeying beside me. We are all one, connected through the most pure and indestructible parts of ourselves.

In addition, one of the women; Karla Benedict, sadly passed away less than a month after we shared this ritual together. Needless to say, it was heartbreaking. A lot of grieving had to take place after this experience. I gave her 9X9' work to her family to keep. Later on I noticed that in her spiral she wrote repeatedly: "I am at peace, I am at peace, I am at peace, I am at peace…" all the way out to the edges of the paper.

“Every overgrown passion (including addiction and cravings), aggression, and signs of ignorance (including denial and the tendency to shut down or close out) is a seed for inner peace, compassion and openness…Our teacher is not separate from our own experience. My realization is that my fullest potential is here. This is the seed, and the full grown tree, this is where the work is done, on the ground level, this is where acceptance is stepped into… This place of pain, the charnel ground is the working basis for attaining enlightenment.”
~ Pema Chodron

INTREPID III Performance,
"I am, I am, I am, I surrender..." Charcoal on 9ft X 9ft paper, 
August 2018, Oak Bluffs, MA

Each time I perform INTREPID, I write an affirmation that comes to me as I sit at the center of the paper in stillness before beginning the spiral. INTREPID III reads “I am, I am, I am, I surrender, I surrender, I surrender, I surrender…” The remainder of the spiral continues with “I surrender” repeated out to the edges of the paper. 

INTREPID embodies epigenetics and becomes a vehicle for neuroplasticity. Epigenetics means that a shift in perception can shift genetic expression. The work is deeply connected to birth and death; as I give birth to new aspects of myself, other aspects are dying away. Literally, a rewiring is happening, and new neural connections are being established. The work explores confronting impermanence. Much like a Buddhist mandala that is poured into a river after it’s created, as I write “ I am, I am, I am, I surrender, I surrender, I surrender, I surrender…” all the way out to the edges of the paper, I enter a meditative state and slowly my body erases the words I’ve previously written, although not completely. The intentions are transcribed directly onto my skin, becoming a part of me; and what remains is a faint image of what was written, speaking to the aspect of us that never truly dies and is never fully erased.

Intrepid III takes place on Martha’s Vineyard at Inkwell Beach in Oak Bluffs, which has a rich African American history. During the performance the Inkwell Polar Bears communed in a circle in the water chanting and praying (not pictured in the film -- just out of frame). The Polar Bears are a large group of all ages (originally a small group of black women and men) that have met on this particular beach every summer morning since 1946 to connect, commune, and pray during the morning sunrise hours. The Polar Bears continue to meet every morning of the summer at Historic Inkwell Beach. 

INTREPID III was performed at Art on the Vine: Pressure Points on Martha's Vineyard, and served as closure for Intrepid 0 (2014), Intrepid I (2015) and Intrepid II (2015).

Video Documentation by David Welch
Photo Documentation by Dayo Kosoko

My grandfather, also an interdisciplinary artist, has a deep impact on my art practice—my mother’s writing, my grandmother’s sewing and my great grandmother’s quilting have all found manifestation in my work. Each medium I use is its own language. I create narrative works that evolve over time. Often materials, processes or residual elements of one work—for example, ashes from a fire, hair, or soil—will find new life in another piece years later. For example, my hair, cut during my ritual performance “Grounding Ceremony” (2011) can be found sewn into “Genetic Memory”. 

I have always felt an intuitive connection to quilting & working with fibers. I'm drawn to the meditative process and the intertwining poetic qualities of memory, material and intergenerational histories. My Grandmother and I are currently collaborating on a series of quilts. 

In addition to quilting, I work with a combination of techniques, including sewing, bleaching and dyeing fabric. I combine self-portraits, existing family photographs, MRI brain scans of my Mother’s brain and portraits of family that I have taken with natural fabrics, such as mudcloth and cotton.

My Grandmother helped me to create my first 6ft by 7ft quilt commission for the Reginal F. Lewis Museum in 2007. I later learned that my Grandmother’s Mother, Josephine, had been a quilter and had created a few quilts in her lifetime. There are also influences in this work from the women of Gee’s bend. I have been deeply inspired by these women and their quilts. I believe I may have some ancestral connection there as well.

Through this work I explore family stories, even those with many missing pieces. Having never met my paternal father, many aspects of my lineage are a mystery to me; so call on the unknown as I explore my own inner journey in understanding impermanence, surrender, death, fluidity, and the infiniteness of the self as it connects to the interwoven fabric of the cosmos.

Grounding Ceremony documents the ceremonial release of my hair, which began with a sacred burial ritual. I begin by digging a hole into the Earth.  I ultimately enter that hole, where I cut each of my locs one by one. Each loc represents another level of release and cleansing, until all of my locs have been cut, marking the full release of the past. I was not the same person upon rising from the Earth that day, with my cut locs surrounding me, appearing like wings. 

Hair holds experiences, and a tree grows best when it has strong, solid roots. This ceremony released me from what I had been holding tightly to; and by rooting myself within the Earth for that process, I was able to transmute that energy so that I could emerge renewed. This video documents a very vulnerable moment of release and spiritual grounding. With the release of my hair, so many other things were also shed from my life. This work documents a true transition and rite-of-passage for me. 

Unfold documents a metamorphic transition. I worked on Unfold, for a 10 year period.

Unfold began as a cast of my upper body, which I made into a pregnant form. From there, over the years, the piece would evolve based on life experiences, new understandings and revelations in dreams. During an emotionally tumultuous time in my life,  I had a dream that I cut my chest open and took my heart out. In the dream, I seached everywhere for someone who could fix it and put my heart safely back into my chest, but eventually found no one. Upon waking from this dream, I channeled that intensity into this piece, which was still a cast at the time. I mounted the cast to a large wooden panel and cut the chest open.

Over the years the piece evolved. I impregnated the cast with written intentions and words on fabric. I painted it and attached roots and bark. A few months after "Grounding Ceremony" I began to sew up the pregnant torso up with my newly cut locs. As a few more years passed, I opened the body cast again, revisiting and revising those intentions to more positive and life affirming ones. Then I sewed the torso back up using my locs. 

It’s final stages of development came as I built a large cocoon attached to a sculptural cast of my “pregnant” torso, sewn together by my hair. I then entered the cocooon, where I spent time in deep stillness. While in the cocoon I wrote words along the inside of its walls with india ink; the drips and painted strokes visibly appearing on the outside surface of this transluscent cocoon. After five hours of being inside of this piece, I (publicly) birthed myself from the cocoon I had created, hand dyed fabric trailing behind me like an umbilical cord. 

Not long after birthing myself from the cocoon, I decided to bury the placenta in my yard. The piece is still outside, as the weather & shifting seasons change it daily. Eventually it will fully return to the Earth. 

"The butterfly can help you see that exiting the cocoon suddenly opens a new door. The power of the butterfly lies in transformation and trust. Caterpillars must trust instinctual inclinations without doubt in order to reach the metamorphic stage. The caterpillar is almost completely dissolved by enzyme compounds within the chrysalis, before it can reform into an adult butterfly. Their whole body must be broken down to completely transform!" ~ "The Incredible Journey of the Butterflies"
 

My work extends beyond my personal practice and engages collaboratively with community. I bring art-based ritual to various communities in the forms of intergenerational storytelling, performance, ceremonial rites of passage, installation, sensory therapy and deep meditative rest experiences. I have received recognition from Maryland's First Lady Yumi Hogan & the Maryland Behavioral Health Administration for my art and activism in raising awareness on issues and stigmas surrounding mental health and substance use disorder. I served as Resident Healing Artist for a Baltimore-based initiative call The New Day Campaign (https://newdaycampaign.org) dedicated to creating and curating over 32 art-based public events and art exhibitions to challenge stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness and substance use disorder, making the world a more healing place. 

I created and facilitated a free workshop for 16 black women in association with an exhibition I was invited to participate in called BLACKBIRD, curated by Alexis Dixon.  I taught bookmaking, conducted tea ceremony and I gifted the women hand-built self-preservation boxes I filled these kits with over 25 handcrafted and carefully chosen self-preservation + survival tools. These boxes were built, cut, sanded and fastened by myself and my Grandfather using deconstructed wine boxes. I created handles for them from rope and leather. These boxes serve as a companion for these women, and are still being used now, almost two years later. I continue to get messages from the women saying how much the self-preservation kit and workshop experience has influenced their lives and how they move through the world and care for themselves. 

Overall, my work explores healing and liberation, through the vehicle & practice of various art forms. Discoveries my personal art practice inform how I engage with my community and share these tools in the form of sensory, communal experiences and rites of passage. I am passionate about black women resting and engaging in practices of self-care.  As a certified yoga nidra instructor I create unique rest experiences. 

Recently I was able to visit Patuxent Prison Institution as a part of my friend and fellow artist, Nikia Kigler's program to bring art-based classes to men and women in prison (Art Inside/Out). While at the prison I taught a class focused on art, yoga nidra/deep rest and self preservation to the women there. I guided them through creating an inner sanctuary or inner resource and gifted them with aromatherapy sachets that I hand crafted with dried flowers and essential oils.  Stimulating the senses in this way was meant to create new memories that activate the parasympathetic nervous system while allowing them to transport themselves through visualization & breath work to experience true rest, even in such a tumultuous environment. For those moments we were not in a prison. We shared stories and explored the complexities of healing and self-preservation. 

Overall, I am here to unearth a space that can be accessed through this unique merging of worlds; that of art, ritual, spirituality, neuroscience and sensory exploration. My desire is to rediscover a sense of peace, wonder, healing happiness for us all, especially BIPOC (Black & Indigenous People of color). In ritualizing the mundane I hope to rediscover that which has been forgotten and stolen from us. My desire is to armor us with tools and practices for sustenance and connection in a society that often does not make us feel safe, loved and held.  

_________________

Offerings  Include:

Alchemical Artforms: A Workshop Series for Black Women
- Hand Crafted Teas & Herbalism
- Bookmaking & creative practice
- Self-care & Self-preservation
- Self-care boxes & survival kits
- Sensory Exploration
- Ritual & Rite of Passage Ceremony
- Daring to Rest Yoga Nidra

Handcrafted Books
I teach the creation of personalized, hand-bound books. The handmade books serve as alchemical tools that offer the opportunity to release, affirm, manifest, and process ones emotions; as well as unearth ancestral stories and gain a deeper understanding of self.

Self-Preservation Boxes
Hand-built self-preservation kits filled with over 20 handcrafted self-care tools. 

Handcrafted Teas.
I teach participants how to create handcrafted medicinal tea blends using a series of herbs. We explore the healing properties of each herb and we learn presence and connection through full sensory exploration. We then have a tea pouring, tasting and discussion.

Tea Ceremony.
Based on the research & work of Dr. Masaru Emoto; I facilitate a silent tea ceremony in which we create a communal brew in one central cauldron. Participants are guided through the process of choosing & filling their own tea bags with herbs, then adding those to a communal brew. Prior to the ceremony my Grandmother & I hand embroider each tea bag with a word or affirmation. Infusing the hot water with the embroidered words, herbs and our intentions changes the molecular structure of the water; thus by drinking with intention and attention, we change our own biochemistry and emotional state when we introduce this brew into our bodies during the silent tasting. 

Words such as “Love”, “Peace” & “Stillness” are literally woven into the bags that house our tea. In this way we’ve also invited our Ancestors into this ceremony through the sacred and ancient practice of sewing & embroidery. This ceremony uses all elements but focuses on the transformative qualities of water & earth, present in both the tea and in our physical bodies. 

“Water records information, and while circulating throughout the earth distributes information. This water sent from the universe is full of the information of life...” ― Masaru Emoto, The Hidden Messages in Water

Daring to Rest Yoga Nidra (+ Meditative Moments)
I am a Certified Daring to Rest Yoga Nidra Facilitator. Yoga Nidra, also known as "yogic sleep" is a deep, meditative, conscious sleep experience that utilizes stillness, body scanning, visual journeying and conscious breath-work to ground you back into your body and take you on a journey through deeply restorative brain-wave states; allowing rest, detoxification and rejuvenation on a cellular level. This is among one of the various meditative experiences I offer.

Sleep Hygiene Workshop.
In this workshop I explore the science, fundamentals and importance of sleep, with a focus on Black Women resting. Offering insight around healthy sleep practices, as well as ways to develop a deeper relationship with sleep and rest. Learning to use rest as a time to reclaim our dreams; resting for our ancestors who couldn’t. This workshop reframes rest as revolutionary as we learn to traverse deep brain wave states to heal on a cellular level.

Four Directions: 
I am in the early stages of working on a a huge community-based project called Four Directions. Four Directions is a four-part project, spanning over two years, that explores immersive ritual experiences, ceremonial practices and communal rites of passage to consciously channel, engage, and unravel ancestral memory for people of color (specifically black & indigenous people). Four Directions is about healing trans-generational trauma and building intergenerational bridges as a community, while engaging in practices of deep rest, self-love and self-preservation. I’m hoping that our often-fragmented ancestral histories take on more clarity through this project and that we learn to carry the potency of those stories with us; while still remaining light.