Artist Interview: Sally Nicholson
Under the noise of our scurrying minds, there's a place of subconscious viscera. It's that subterranean place inside of us that gives birth to dreams, presenting to us the lesser seen aspects of our own being. The work of artist Sally Nicholson has, for me, the effect of puncturing the membrane that buffers us from the subconscious, so that its contents--its snails, storms, and sounds--are allowed to seep out and be seen, heard, and intensely felt. In the words below, she talks about her work.
Questions:
Dreams are mentioned or alluded to in some of your work. What influence do your dreams have on your life and your art?
As an introduction,
I will give you a key to understand some of the language I may use on this exploration:
She/Her: I use the name “She” or “Her” for the one I see in my dreams. Her only duty is to survive the hardships that a sleeping brain makes you succumb to.
Me: The one who sleeps. I am simply a witness to the challenges I put Her through. Sometimes I consider myself a voyeur once in this situation.
The Snowglobe: The stage. It is what contains the setting of all my dreams, the props, events, challenges that She faces and I watch her go through.
How do you prove a dream?
You don’t.
You recreate it.
From a vulnerable memory your sleeping mind built JUST for you.
A gift.
I often have suffocating dreams that I use as my kindling to produce. I feel I must pay my respects to these dreams by trying to entertain them the best I can. They are overpowering, governing, overwhelming, scary, hurtful. Subconscious me went through the motions to overcome them.
Sometimes she doesn’t even overcome them.
Sometimes she simply waits for me to wake up, and that dream to finally end.
She feels every twitch and punch of fear and confusion that I PUT HER THROUGH.
Because
She is me and I owe Her
for being resilient.
And loyal.
When you set out to do a performance, do you have a pre-chosen intention or experience that you want to communicate? Or is it more of an exploration of something unknown? Or a mixture of the two? Or something else entirely?
(The final works of (mine) that you watch with me)
(with me)
(hear)
(with)
(me)
(lick with me)
(They are tributes.)
What helps you maintain your connection to creative ideas and inspiration? This could be a habit, an intention or motive, a material, a place, a person, a book, or anything else.
I have always been a reader. Shakespeare, the epic Greek poems & tragedies, classic literature all for example, really get me going...and these are all equal forms of stimulus for my studio practice.
Writing is how I sketch.
Rarely do I draw.
I have always considered myself a collector of language. Holding onto phrases, words, intentions that have leached onto my memory bank. As of the past year or so, I have been accompanying most of my videos, sculptures, performance and audio pieces with a poem. I see it as the piece’s own voice.
I am a strong believer that poetry is a noise you must hear, and each piece of mine has to have enough of an appetite to be able to SCREAM.
How does your sense of self change while you are performing?
The sense of self becomes ooey-gooey, sticky, sappy.
I enter into a passionate, full-hearted maternal figure vortex, who wants to honor Her the best I can. Along with that, I become much more selfish than I ever am on the day-to-day.
I say selfish because: these gifts (dream memories) are mine. And they are fragile.
Although they aren’t always friendly gifts, they ARE gifts that were only built for me.
I don’t want to share with you,
I don’t want help recreating them,
because that would be cheating.
Are there any projects you’re working on now, or would like to work on in the future, that are exciting or stimulating you? Why are you drawn to it and where do you want to go with it?
It is pretty separated from my personal practice currently, but I am co-partnering in an art space endearingly named Gluon Gallery. Together, Joe Acri and I are aiming to create an easily accessible platform with the objective of supporting and challenging young, budding artists.
This mission has been one of importance my entire undergrad career.
Of course it is noticeable; the lack of shows and/or events in our community that take on a wide array of undergrad students.
Those in this malleable stage of learning about their practices are the ones that we need to keep pushing & supporting.
In some of the glimpses I’ve caught of your work online, it feels like the surface layer of reality’s skin is being peeled away and the contents beneath are then seen or manipulated. In these works, it felt like I was experiencing a facet of life that is intensely, viscerally real, yet which is not often perceived. It is similar to the way dreams will bring my attention to aspects of myself or life that I don’t always notice. For me, some of your work functions as a catalyst that triggers this shift of perception. Perhaps this is all my own projection, but does any of this relate to your intentions for or experience of your art?
What a curious question, and read of my work.
Isn’t that what a dream is, in a way? When you sleep, that subconscious of yours is ruthless and it really pays attention. Mine does at least.
Asleep.
Reality’s skin (your skin) owns nothing but a metaphorical weight that is very easily torn away from your metaphorical bones. You're dreaming, who knows if you have bones, but we can just assume you do. And once that weight is torn away you are on full blast: muscle, mucus, arteries, capillaries, secrets, intimacies, obsessions are all fair game to become the foundation of the screening room that is your sleeping brain.
Am I in control of the screening room? No. It is more powerful than I am. I am secondary, I am an audience in awe. It is pure, and my current fascination.
Awake.
I think often about how our nights would likely be quieter and our sleep more serene if we didn’t dream so much. But our minds would not be as rich nor our brains as nimble nor our wishes so often fulfilled (and fears excavated.)
This may sometimes wear you out, but you will never be bored. My bidding ultimately is to pay tribute to the ongoings inside of the Snowglobe, but also to let them show, guide, inspire both me, and Her.
If you want to let your mind be palpably shifted and transported, listen to this audio piece by Sally Nicholson with headphones on and eyes closed. It is just five minutes long and is subtly impactful if you let yourself sink into it.
links
@salspal_ - Sally Nicholson's Instagram
Gluon Gallery - An art gallery in Milwaukee, WI USA, co-founded by Sally Nicholson and Joe Acri
On my blog, you can find writings on art and alchemical thinking, interviews about creativity, psychologically-oriented reflections on tarot, and more. You can check out past posts in the categorized list below. You can also find my art, music, and Lila Radio, an auditory series of improvised, absurdist, psychedelic (mind-manifesting) storytelling.
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Art
- Dec 19, 2016 Wakey Wakey, Inner Kiddo
- Dec 28, 2016 How to Make Magical Oranges
- Aug 17, 2017 Put the Potatoes on Your Face
- Sep 14, 2017 Art is a Portal
- Dec 1, 2017 Why the Tutu?
- Apr 3, 2018 Public Alchemy: Notes on Street Performance
- Jun 22, 2018 The Freedom and Fear of Being Yourself (Notes on Performance and Life)
- Jul 2, 2018 About the Folks Who Think You Stink (Notes on Performance and Life)
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Interviews
- Feb 21, 2018 Artist Interview: Samantha Blumenfeld
- Mar 1, 2018 Artist Interview: Lawrence Blackman
- Apr 23, 2018 Interview: Yogi Ron Katwijk
- Jun 4, 2018 Artist Interview: Sally Nicholson
- Jul 18, 2018 Artist Interview: Kayle Karbowski
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Magical Thinking
- Dec 28, 2016 How to Make Magical Oranges
- Jan 15, 2017 Following Fear
- Feb 19, 2017 Why Does Heartache Happen?
- Jul 6, 2017 Nerves and Tutus
- Aug 7, 2017 Three Reasons to Destroy Yourself (Or Not)
- Sep 14, 2017 Art is a Portal
- Dec 1, 2017 Why the Tutu?
- Jan 5, 2018 Chaos' Playground: Finding Gold in the Shitstorm
- Apr 3, 2018 Public Alchemy: Notes on Street Performance
- Apr 16, 2018 Questions for Limitations
- Jun 22, 2018 The Freedom and Fear of Being Yourself (Notes on Performance and Life)
- Jul 2, 2018 About the Folks Who Think You Stink (Notes on Performance and Life)
- Aug 23, 2018 Melting a Snowball of Misery
- Jun 21, 2019 White Peacocks, Constipation, and Emotional Liberation
- Aug 5, 2019 Celebrating Your Misery
- Dec 4, 2020 The Healing Voice: Wounds, Addiction, and Purgation
- May 18, 2023 Magick is a Sentient Entity: Using the Imagination to Co-Create with Magick
- Jun 21, 2023 Magick for Reshaping Life and Transmuting Trauma
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Tarot
- Aug 26, 2017 Tarot as a Tool for Reality Construction
- Feb 28, 2018 Today's Tarot: The World is in the Seed
- Jun 27, 2019 Today's Tarot: Snot, Beauty, and Tea for Pain
- Aug 12, 2019 Today's Tarot: The Moon of Self-Loathing
- Aug 13, 2019 Today's Tarot: The Golden Devils Inside You
- Aug 18, 2019 Today's Tarot: Shifting Pain by Surrendering to It
- Aug 25, 2019 TAROT QUESTION #1: Why is the Present Moment So Much All the Time?
- Sep 3, 2019 TAROT QUESTION #2: Do abusers know they're being abusive, or is that just their sense of reality?
- Sep 25, 2019 TAROT QUESTION #3: Why can't I find more hours in a day?
- Oct 11, 2019 TAROT QUESTION #4: How long will it be until I have a new job?
- Oct 24, 2019 TAROT QUESTION #5: Why does my skin crawl with wonder and fascination as such important relationships in my life are connected by the eyes?
