hattie grimm

BIRD BODY | Charles Allis Art Museum 2025

Show statement:

When I see the birds fly thousands of miles into the unknown together, I am reminded that our animal bodies have this same instinctual wisdom. The bird and human forms are painted to make this embodied wisdom visible - what does it look like when we receive a spark of excitement in our chest or feel a powerful current of grief washing through our broken hearts? The sensation may appear as a bright spiral in the hand, a deep blue lake in the heart, or a fish swimming through the leg. The wooden beings have their wings spread wide, receptive to the insight their body carries.
 
BIRD BODY offers a way to relate to our bodies, to our emotions, to the interconnected nature of all things, to the birds, the ground, the lake, the dark, and the light. How brave it is to unravel our numbness and observe our insides with gentleness and curiosity. Like looking underwater with goggles on. Or observing a fossil at the beach. Practicing this kind of receptivity can help us uncover something more true and alive in everything and in ourselves.