ECO-PARAPSYCHOLOGY: INVESTIGATING PARANORMAL ENVIRONMENTALISM ON THE CHESAPEAKE BAY
In 2007, I launched a Performance Art series called Eco-Parapsychology: Investigating Paranormal Environmentalism on the Chesapeake Bay. Realizing that art is illusion, I explore, like the Spirit Photographers, hoax in what is otherwise photographic truth to the public-at-large. From start to finish, my work is performative: creating the profession Eco-parapsychologist, promoting pseudo documents as evidence, and acting in front of my camera in handmade costumes.
The historical/mythological characters I choose to impersonate as apparitions held ethical ideals which are now, by default of time, out of context. Underlying messages from their initial social lessons are misconstrued or simply forgotten. To paraphrase Carl Sagan, humanistic tenets are difficult to harbor when the world is uninhabitable. The legends of these revered personages are deconstructed to motivate contemporary awareness of the local environment. My message is fully intended to be absurd; the dead returning to fix the planet for the apathetic living is tongue-in-cheek. In some form or another, the characters become eco-social.
Although my work mainly addresses ecological concerns on the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the complexity of identity and circumstance among an era of massive globalization surfaces. Society and nature are interconnected in the biosphere where all life co-exists as one superorganism. The word globalization, which refers to a three-dimensional abstraction of our planet on a spindle, is replaced with biosphericalization. Human individuality and intersectionality are analyzed as a performance on the bio-stage.
1. Queen Elizabeth I, Elizabeth River, Norfolk, March 7, 2016: Revered for allegedly defeating the Spanish Armada, this queen is now appearing as ghost in her attempts to stop contemporary ship invasion carrying non-native species in ballast water. In particular, she minds veined rapa whelk brought in from the Sea of Japan. This whelk is predator to native oysters and clams necessary to a healthy ecology and economy of the Chesapeake Bay.
2. Chesapeake Spirit, Larchmont Apartments, Norfolk, May 7, 2016: Spirit bathing in a bathtub protested, “The Chesapeake Bay is too dirty from faulty sewage treatment plants.” Wastewater entering the Bay can be reduced if sewage plants were upgraded. Dirty water isn’t the only problem. Too much nutrient (waste) in the Bay replaces oxygen with nitrogen. Massive algae blooms grow in nitrogen-rich environments, blocking sunlight and disabling subaquatic vegetation from photosynthesizing oxygen.
3. Grace Sherwood, Lynnhaven River, Virginia Beach, May 25, 2016: Ghost of widowed Pungo, Virginia farmer accused of witchcraft appeared floating on the Lynnhaven River. In 1706, she was crossbound and ducked in the river. According to accusers’ logic, water was pure, therefore rejected demons possessing a witch. Hence, the guilty floated. Those who were innocent drowned. Today, the river is heavily contaminated. Grace returned to prove she is not a witch.4. Elizabeth Van Lew, Wayne Creek, Norfolk, Virginia, May 11, 2017: Ghost of Richmond Civil War abolitionist was seen freeing blue crabs from crab cages on Wayne Creek, a tidal estuary of the Chesapeake Bay. Lack of habitat, such as seagrass, makes the blue crabs vulnerable to over-harvest and predation, thus, the low population of only 38% left in the Bay. Van Lew proves once more to be a revolutionary thinker, not “Crazy Bet”, as she believes a moratorium on crabs is long overdue.
5. Virgen, Grandview Reserve, Hampton, January 2, 2015: The apparition of this Virgin from Spain occurred near a sand dune in Grandview Nature Preserve. Pointing to cans and other debris in the bushes where waterfowl nest, the Virgin commented on how disrespectful we are for dumping trash along the watershed. She added that she watched over those who humbly pick up shoreline litter, those who prevent harm to waterfowl, fish, and other wildlife.
6. The Buddha, Chesapeake Bay, VA Beach, August 15, 2015: Buddha was seen at Chicks Beach purifying toxic chemicals, mainly PCB and mercury, from the Chesapeake Bay. PCB enters the Bay primarily through stormwater runoff, i.e. pollutants on the roads and parking lots flow into the Bay through city storm drains. Atmospheric deposition of mercury into the Bay is mainly caused by coal-fired power plant emissions mixing with rain or snow. Buddha says: Mediation, not meditation, is needed.
7. Jesus, Chesapeake Bay, Virginia Beach, August 4, 2015: Jesus saw the devastation of making fishers out of men. They said unto him: “We have but two menhaden left in the sea.” Jesus said, “Summon the multitude; bring them hither to me.” He commanded the multitude to sit on the beach, took the fishes from their mouths, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and returned the menhaden to the sea.
8. Ships Susan Constant, Godspeed, Discovery, James River, April 20, 2018: The three founding ships originally entered the James River to eventually settle in Jamestown. They were seen as ghost ships navigating up the James River. Today, they float to bring the cormorant, an endangered water fowl, a place to nes–an alternative to the transmission towers which stretch the River five miles wide.
9. Exhibition Poster, Manolete Fanning a Blue Crab, March 21, 2018: Blue crabs are going extinct due to anoxia balboa write more here… Using his cape as a means to resuscitate the native crab…
10. Chesapeake Bay Gold, October 2015: The Crassostrea virginica is the native oyster often referred to as Chesapeake Bay Gold, or white gold, because of the exorbitant amount of money their harvesting generated during past centuries. Now, almost extinct, t„his work of art resembling currency replaces Chesapeake Bay Gold. If purchased at face value, the money procured is used to restore fisheries. Each piece of art is signed and numbered to insure authenticity.
BLACK PICKET FENCE: A PHOTOJOURNAL DIARY AND PERFORMANCE
DIARY OF A PISCES: AN ASEMIC LANGUAGE AND PHOTO JOURNAL
The artist’s diary of her experiences due to drastic life changes, the longing to discover and reestablish what has been lost or taken away and the incurring inabilities, unacceptances, heartbreaks, failures, hopelessness, surrenders.