Alexis Elton

Digital Artist in Residence, Fall 2020

Alexis Elton is an artist practicing sculpture and installation. A farmer and adobe builder who co-operated a farm in rural New Mexico, “her work is situated where art and agrarian systems meet with aims to create ephemeral sensory encounters.” She has shown her work nationally and internationally. She is based in Hudson Valley, NY. Learn more about her at www.alexiselton.com.

The process of allowing, undoing the known to connect to natural forms

How do we connect when fear, uncertainty, and mass grief have shown their shadows personally and globally? The natural world has nourished, housed, and formed communities for thousands of years. Cultures built civilizations through the guidance of the natural world, transforming and connecting to a place or land as source.

The changing Anthropocene is a direct result of imbalance with our connection to land as re-source ie commodification and industrialization. The wounds from this unbalance are serious. The fires are huge. Land and waters grieve. We as humans, are only now suffering global grief for our social injustices.

Plants have adapted and become resilient. Working with smell, plant aromatics allow us to experience their spirit and in doing so they become allies for personal transformation. Through slowing down we are able to tune in to a deeper part of ourselves. We may hear our inner voice, traumas, or our dreams. Aromatic plant molecules connect to our memory bank. Through smell we ignite the ability to expand the mind and psyche.

The oil and hydrosol aromatics explored were steam distilled, while others were the plant itself. Distillations are like blue prints of the plant, reflecting the molecular structure, energetic qualities, and the climate in which the plant grew. Plants chosen were native to my ancestors. Using these aromas once smelled by family, one can tune in to the land and the molecules of connectedness, cultivation relationships.

The practice of smelling is to breathe, to remember, to heal, to listen. Smelling affects the cellular and effects the spirit. As in alchemy, there are different phases of transformation. As we breathe, aromatic molecules enter the physical, emotional, and spirit body, and the plant is a shepherd into our inner selves. Memories become points on a map of a sensory experiences. A map of continuous time and place. No different than the work of living to provide a map.

Materia

Chosen aromatics were based on what I grew in my garden and from places native to my ancestors.

Some notes on personal experience from getting to know these aromatic plants. They are not claims.

Earth from NY, MI, NM, and OR. Places I have formed relationships with across the US. As a mode of connecting both to the land I live on and honoring histories and communities of place. Earth as grounding, essential, nurturer, expanding, and changing.

Sage, salvia officinalis, a plant of antiquity, native to the Mediterranean and Latin for to heal. Salvia leads the way into clarity and protection. Used in plant form and oil.

Labdanum oil, from resin of cistus labdanum. Native to eastern Mediterranean, Greece and nearby. One of the oldest distillations. Used in ancient Egypt by pharaohs in their beards as a form of ancient technology. Can reveal things that have been kept in the dark, empowering, ancestral secrets.

Helichrysum, helichrysum Italicum, or also known as Immortelle. Native to Mediterranean region. In Greek, Helichrysum derives from the word helios meaning sun and chrysos meaning gold. Known to heal wounds both physical and physiological. Warmth, uplifting, a hug, golden wheat fields. Used oil.

Holy Basil or Tulsi, ocimun sanctum hydrosol and tea. Native to India and the tropics. In Sanskrit tulsi means beyond compare. Honored as one of India’s most sacred plants. Unwinding the nervous system, meditative. Used in plant form and hydrosol.