OASIS: THE EMOTIONAL TERRAIN OF RESTROOMS

“The only place I had any solace was in the bathroom.” -Linda Fiorentino

Bathrooms have always been a sacred space for American society’s so-called undesirables. It is a sanctuary for drug users, the chronically ill, the homeless, the lonely, the ridiculed, the mentally ill, and all people who menstruate. OASIS is an ongoing project that explores the emotional terrain of these spaces.

The project is currently made up of two pieces: a series of self-portraits and a site-specific multimedia installation featured as part of Alexander Golob’s TTLG Art Show in 2017.

The former reclaims the bathroom selfie as a powerful and rich form of artistic self-expression that challenges the misogyny and classism of the art world.

The latter aims to “lift the veil” for those who see the restroom as a purely utilitarian space and hold its chronic inhabitants at arm’s length. The natural beauty of an overgrown garden creeps into every corner of the crumbling bathroom space in a way that feels comforting and familiar, but eerily apocalyptic and ominous. Guests to the TTLG Art Show who used the bathroom during the event placed themselves directly inside of the perspective of society’s “othered” while other guests were able to come as spectators, filing in and out of this intense emotional terrain like an open house.