I began associating the concept of “caves” and “touch” after experiencing multiple cave excursions in Texas, Missouri, and California. On these expeditions, tour guides warn amateur “cavers” not to touch the stalagmites, as the rock formation’s growth can become staunched from the oils on a person’s skin. Thus, touch is made to seem destructive. Stalactites protrude downward from the cave ceiling and stalagmites rise upward from the rocky floor. When they meet, they form columns, indicating a fortifying or life-giving touch. They build something stronger, creating infrastructure and foundation through physical connection. The act of the columns meeting, joining stalagmites and stalactites, echoes the touch between Adam and God in Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam.” 

 

For the artistic residency at Torrance Art Museum, I created plaster casts of my hands – the fingers extending upward like stalagmites. These casts were arranged along the floor, creating a stretch of eerily white fingers. The fingers were splayed, taking on different positions or reaching in different directions. I noticed that the singular hand casts were much more susceptible to breakage than that of interlocking hands. This structural phenomenon echoed the sentiment that relational touch can be healing. I scattered the casts of broken fingers among the other hand casts to echo this sentiment. The white of the plaster signified the concept of death, sterility, and destructive touch. 

 

At the far end of the clusters of plaster-cast hands, I created a cave formed out of plaster. I chose to apply the plaster to the cave exterior by hand so that my finger strokes could be seen across its surface. Some of the casts were made in the form of praying hands, positioned reverently at the base of the cave, indicating that touch can also be sacred. Thus, the cave site serves as a contemplative space, wherein the senses are stimulated. Viewers were encouraged to enter immersively within the structure. The projection of my cave animation was viewable just beyond the cave installation. This film took on a whiteboard animation style, as I feel the medium of the whiteboard echoes the idea of touch, life, and death through creation and erasure. In the video, stop-motion images of my hand can be seen drawing with a whiteboard marker or positioned to swipe the drawing away. Thus, the digital hand and the physical hand were interwoven in this project. 

 

Throughout the residency, visitors saw me add the plaster hands to the open floor space, one by one. They also witnessed the creation process of these casts, wherein, I submerge my hands into the mold mixture, remove my hand, and pour the liquid plaster. Upon extracting my hands from the molds, I found that the cavities in the molds had a cavernous appearance. To access the casts, I needed to break apart the alginate mold. Thus, the process involved both destruction and creation by nature. 

 

Museumgoers also witnessed the construction of the plaster cave. This gradual artistic development paralleled the way in which cave stalagmites form imperceptibly over time. Each water droplet deposits small towers of calcite and minerals along the ground. At the closing reception of the residency, I gave away the hand casts to visitors to involve the community further in the project. I wanted to culminate the residency by emphasizing the relational aspect of the work.