About the Piece

For Florence is an action I created that began as an idea/ voice memo while walking at Lincoln Park. The boat ramp, and site of the action, is located in front of the Florence Nightengale statue. During the pandemic, my bodily boundaries shifted. limited access to public and private restrooms and my frequent walks in public space created a need to ritualize and process both body and site.

The idea was to bring a very large paper and allow the ducks and the water in the lake to finish the work. The action became a ritual for my healing, feeling the collective weight and anxiety of our pandemic.  The paper is covered with cochineal. Florence gave me a yellow lemon. I took the lemon from the statue and peeled it. I pressed the lemon into the paper with my foot as I rotated. I found several loafs of bread in the trash and I fed the ducks and pigeons. I danced. I needed to urinate, so I did.

I brought the large paper back to my home space. I thought about when I was a child, and how much I enjoyed wetting wads of paper in the school bathroom and throwing it onto the ceiling.I then used toilet paper, lemon juice and gel medium to throw lumps of this mixture too the surface of the paper, allowing gravity to replicate the droppings of the birds I had collaborated with. The alchemical reactions brought me joy, the work transformed into a cosmic landscape.

Material: Documentation by Craig Kirk. For Florence is both an action at Lincoln Park and a work on paper. Cochineal on paper, duck leavings, urine and lake water