Q & A with Hold Us Tight artist Maria Cline

From the artist:

Care is Coming, a handmade poetry and prose book, encapsulates my experience with brain trauma and the care that follows. While the manuscript brings you through the past eight trauma-filled years by way of characters Pain, Healing, and Body, the book structure heightens the bodily experience. The book consists of three mulberry paper panels tied shut with a leather string and hinged with leather. They unfold to showcase the manuscript of three parts: Memory I, Memory II, and Memory III nestled in linen pockets. These three mulberry paper folios each come out of their pockets and individually fold out to eighteen by twenty-four inches. I handled each material as a duplicate of my body, ultimately treating the book as my body itself. As the viewer opens the book, they are peeling back my vulnerability. They view my insides. They view my pain.

Where do you find inspiration?

I find inspiration through so many things, but mainly through the subtle, the mundane, the natural, and the repetitive. I'm generally a quiet person (an observer) so I tend to notice the small things typically gone unnoticed. For example, washing the dishes is something I find quite meditative, as is setting the table, reading, pouring water, and moving fluidly in general. My process is happening all the time through daily moments; once I thoroughly soak up these things, I can create something.  

What drew you to the concept of Hold Us Tight?  

Firstly, the title, Hold Us Tight, very much resonates with me. As a person living with chronic pain, I ruminate on what it means to hold my own body, to care for my own body, to let my body nurture me. This past year has been particularly rough pain-wise, and so this exhibition felt like the perfect cap for this chapter, to let this book breathe, as I'm really leaning into what it truly means to rest. 

Tell me about your work with this exhibition.  

My work for Hold Us Tight is titled: Care is Coming. This is a poetry and prose book I recently made as a sort of ode to my pain. The book holds three different sections of words regarding my experience with brain trauma and the care following that damage. In the process of hand making this book, I ultimately chose the materials and structure to mimic my body, ultimately treating the book as my body itself.