Comfort Sessions are an outgrowth from my larger Lullaby Project, in which I am invited to homes to sing: for crying babies, for those who have insomnia, for those who are sick, for those who are dying, for those who are lonely, for those who are perverts, for those who are frightened, for those who need something but don’t know what.
This work came out of my early years as a mother to two children, in which the daily grind of motherhood wore away the edges of my own identity. I found myself again at night, by the sides of their beds: I sang songs my mother sang, I sang songs from Disney movies, I sang songs I learned from Muppets. I sang Prince and Madonna and Cake, I sang Broadway, I sang 40s love songs and 60s pop songs and hymns and sea shanties and cowboy ballads and early American folk songs and songs in other languages. Unlike most of my day’s activities, those were moments when my own pleasure in giving was equal to the pleasure they had in receiving.
During that same period, I stopped being able to sleep myself. Following a brain injury, I developed insomnia that eroded my hours of sleep to the point that I was sleeping almost not at all. Sometimes watching my children fall asleep to my voice was as close to sleep as I could get. So, it’s not too hard to see why I would relish my role as a sandman.
When I started my work based on lullabies, I wondered if I could let myself make work that is so sincere, so utterly uncynical, if anyone would take it seriously. But I find it’s transgressive to actually sing by someone’s side; it’s not the same as singing a concert. It’s an act much closer to the work of a courtesan or prostitute: there’s a line to the level of intimacy one is supposed to have with strangers, and to sing in this way is to cross it.
Comfort Sessions will be presented as part of M Path, an exhibition in the University Galleries of Texas State. The dress and nest will be on view the entire run of the show in the galleries; two performances take place in mid-September.
M PATH
August 28 – September 28, 2013 at the University Galleries of Texas State, San Marcos, TX
The University Galleries are located in the Joann Cole Mitte Building, on the corner of Sessom and Comanche Streets.
Gallery Hours: Monday-Sunday 9AM – 10PM
Performances:
Comfort Sessions by Katelena Hernandez
Daytime: Tuesday, September 17 | Noon – 2 p.m., Gallery 1
Evening: Thursday, September 19 | 7 – 10 p.m., Gallery 1
Empath: A person who is capable of feeling the emotions of
others, despite the fact that they themselves are not in the
same circumstance.
This exhibition seeks to create an empathic gaze on the
part of the viewer to the artist’s work and the ideas contained
therein. Empathy—defined as the action of understanding, being
aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the
feelings, thoughts, and experience of another without having
the feelings, thoughts communicated explicitly—is the focus of
this group exhibition, which creates an emotional architecture
for the viewer to respond to the work. Offered in support of the
university’s Common Experience, Minds Matter: Exploring Mental
Health and Illness, the exhibition explores the nature of emotional
dissonance, unease, and evaluation. As such, identity—or lack
thereof—is used as a standard for and a path to the viewer’s
emotional responses.
M Path features works by the following artists:
Vera Barnett
Caleb Cole
Ryan Everson
Angela Fraleigh
Heyd Fontenot
Ewan Gibbs
Nigel Grimmer
Sean Hathaway / Carlos Severe Marcelin
Katelena Hernandez
Katy Horan
JunCheng Liu
Mads Lynnerup
Kristin Musgnug
Kerry Skarbakka
Hadar Sobol
Happy Valentine