KINFOLK

An Interactive Contemplation Through Visuals and Sound

October 2014

  • Totems by Jenna Ann MacGillis
  • Sound design by Robert Mason

Witching for graves is a gift I wish I had. At Cainsville Cemetery, standing atop my ancestors’ grave site in farm country Missouri, my first witching attempt was a small disappointment. Instead of crossing or tilting furtively downward at the site of an unmarked grave, the wire in my hand either fell limp or refused to move at all.

My first installment of Kinfolk, comprised of three totems, with sound design by collaborator Robert Mason, is a task toward gathering just a few of my relations. My faith in using familiar sounds, objects, and basic materials (rope, paper, and glue) to construct symbolic representations of my heritage is my best attempt at waking the dead and inviting them to the party. Present and past meet at the crossroads of everyday gestures, the sweeping away of time.

Viewers sift flour and their footprints dust the floor reflecting time and its passing as they are swept away…

-Jenna Ann Macgillis