Details
I Am Medicine is an interdisciplinary installation that draws from myth and archetype to explore themes of healing, ancestral knowledge, nostalgia, and belonging. This immersive environment creates an intimate universe through visuals, scent, sound, movement, touch, and taste. This installation presents many forms of medicine that soothe and support the complex, uncomfortable, and sometimes joyful healing process.
Hanging in the gallery are collaged figures made from layers of transparent paper with a vibrant color palette and several large-scale cyanotypes hang on the walls depicting tender moments between collaged beings, plants, insects, the artist, and us—the audience. These works play with body language, distortion, and metaphor using beautiful color palettes and intimate imagery. Drawing parallels between the body and nature, terrarium-like structures rise from the floor, nestled amongst figurative ceramic sculptures. Cleansing scents of jasmine, sage, and mint travel through the gallery while a collaborative composition created by Emilio Morones and the artist plays in the background. Some of the plants and collaged figures include an interactive element that we are invited to touch as harmonic notes play along with the composition. The artist and this work seek to humanize the gallery space, transforming it into a vessel for healing, leaving us with a profound sense of belonging in this new and nostalgic universe.
Available as long as supplies last are floral sugar candies developed by Emilio Morones and the artist, meant to accompany the experience by providing a taste to the works.
About the Artist
Vanessa Wallace-Gonzales is a Black and Mexican artist born in Santa Barbara, California who uses elements of mythology to explore her identity and the human experience. She began this exploration during her attendance at the Maryland Institute College of Art, furthering her studies abroad at Studio Art Centers International Honors Program in Florence, Italy and concluding in a BFA. Her work has been shown at Atkinson Gallery, Santa Barbara City College; The Arts Fund, Santa Barbara; Beta Epochs, Los Angeles; Broome Library Gallery, CSU Channel Island; Gallery 1202, Gilroy; The Basic Premise Gallery, Ojai; Carnegie Art Museum Studio Gallery,; Oxnard; Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation, Ojai; MACLA, San Jose; VITA Art Center Gallery, Ventura and the William Rolland Gallery of Fine Art, Cal Lutheran University among other institutions.
Exhibition Highlights
Related Programming
Every Saturday at 11 AM: Join a free tour of the exhibition led by our trained docents. Check in at the front desk.
Contamos con visitas guiadas en español, las puedes solicitar al correo esaperstein@sloma.org para agendar.
Media
Learn more about I Am Medicine in our media mentions. #SLOMAinthenews
Fast Times at SLOMA. LA Weekly, Shana Nys Dambrot. Aug 24, 2023.