Deliquesce: Mary Babcock

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Dates: 
Friday, December 2, 2022 - 6:00pm to Friday, January 27, 2023 - 4:00pm
Deliquesce: absorbing so much water as to liquify and melt away
Exhibition by Mary Babcock
Opening reception December 2nd, 2022 at 6PM
Exhibition dates December 3rd, 2022 through January 27th, 2023
 
In chemistry, to “deliquesce” is to absorb water to the point of liquifying and melting away, as some salts may do. In a new exhibition at the East Hawai‘i Cultural Center, visual and performance artist Mary Babcock takes this concept and applies it to sea level rise and climate change in the Pacific. Nature absorbs the impact of human interventions, but dissolution may be the end result. 
 
Babcock’s primary medium is household wax paper, which she chooses for its paradoxical and metaphorical nature - it is meant to preserve and protect, yet is itself fragile and impermanent. Her works, which are highly labor-intensive, address our often myopic attempts to harness nature’s power for self-interest, and the reverberations of such arrogance. Inspired by multiple narratives from across the Pacific, Babcock mends her pieces together as a personal and political gesture of restoration and repair.
 
Mending is a central theme in the work of Babcock’s work. She is currently Professor in Sculpture and Expanded Practices in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and has exhibited regionally, nationally and internationally. Her work appears in significant public collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and multiple US embassies.
 
Closed December 24th (Christmas Eve) & 31st (New Year's Eve).

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