The installation Dreams, Memories, and Déjà vu evokes an encounter with the sacred through display of collected and handmade items. As participants enter the shrine, they are encouraged to share remnants of the artist’s personal struggles with the loss of loved ones. The image of Sugar, a rescue dog and beloved pet of the artist’s family, stands in as a symbol for those who have passed. While inspired by various religious and spiritual traditions, the installation remains open to participants’ own projections, in the spirit of sharing and learning from others.
This piece is deeply inspired by Go Home. St. Shoogy's Shrine focuses in on a room within the Go Home project called Bettie. Bettie became a memorial for all the dogs I've loved that I've lost. So when Sugar, a dog I loved very much, died at the end of 2015 I took the concept of the Bettie room and began creating St. Shoogy's Shrine. This piece allowed me to focus on a smaller shrine and use the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual pain to build.
Death is such a magical, mystical thing that I can't understand. This shrine references the difficulties of dealing with death, and the possible mental illness that can be triggered by it.
Using collected materials from Sugar's life and my own, this piece is a totem for loss and the hope of somehow connecting with the lost one again. It's a campy shrine that boarders on the absurd and the beautiful. It's a celebration of life.
Go Home is a collaboration between Beth Plakidas, Alison Terndrup and the Tampa Bay community. Combining formal, conceptual and chance elements, it balances the absurd with the beautiful. A seemingly creepy shack becomes a mentally ill reliquary in disrepair. Although encountering the installation might feel overwhelming at first, its objects link together to create a spiritual experience. Go Home resembles a strange cabin in the woods: look, but it may not be safe to touch. Housing remnants of old souls and unwanted things, this reliquary is a spiritual space. Each room contains numerous combines connected by their invisible ties to dog and hair.
This manuscript is a tribute to all dogs who have passed over the rainbow bridge.
This body of work is a collaboration with artist Alison Terndrup. We built shrines out of found wood, decorated them with found objects and displayed them around Tampa, Florida. These works recycle and display the items that are left behind, reviving them and giving them a new life and meaning.
Selected work from 2014
Selected work from 2013
