PRESERVATION OF
FORGETTING AT
NEON HEATER GALLERY
PRESERVATION OF
FORGETTING AT
NEON HEATER GALLERY
The Town Between My Toes
2019
sand, wax, raw rigatoni and shell pasta, pleather, black food coloring, olives, carrots, olive pits, cotton string, resin, wire, wood, paint, rocks, teddy bears
size varies (6' tall)
Pea-n-Carrot Tree
2019
preserved peas, carrots, and peppers, gravestone dust, beads, rocks, sand, resin, paint, plastic, streamers, pleather, wood, string, mosaic tile
12x12x44"
Preservation of Forgetting (2017)
Preservation of Forgetting is a body of work in which Mullis labors to let go. Working with objects that have been discarded, she turns the act of forgetting into a deliberate, physical process. She works with objects that are already forgotten to coerce the process of forgetting upon herself.
The objects in this work are found discarded, leftover, and secondhand: uneaten pizza, lawn chairs, takeout containers, fake houseplants, teddy bears, jump ropes, art magazines, hula hoops, yoga balls, clothes, shoes, and more. Using a rudimentary version of papier-mâché, Mullis wraps each object in torn pieces of Kraft paper drenched in glue, rubbing every inch by hand. Once dried and hardened, the objects appear solid and become resistant to outside change, as if preserved. These mummified objects become records of an unusual intimacy and are stacked into sculptural forms.
This time-intensive process becomes a means to get to know the objects. Through touch, pressure, and repetition, Mullis gets to see and feel how they were touched, what lingered in the objects between touch, and, marking with torn paper, how she has touched. In this way, the objects reveal embedded histories of their previous owners. They become relics for the rest of us.
By carefully handling discarded objects to soften, store, and send away unwanted memories, these sculptures grow into both altars of loss and monuments of touch. By doting on the stuff people get rid of, leave behind, and forget about, Mullis asks—what do we keep? What do we care for? What doesn’t go in the trash? What is forgotten about? What has to be forgotten about? And what is not?