Sluice
By Rebecca Haseltine
© 2016

I taught a course on the skeletal system in the summer of 2016.  We studied the anatomy and embodied the bones by moving, humming into them and tapping them. For weeks my bones were speaking more loudly than usual.  These pieces came out of that experience of bone – in particular the vibration of bone.  The mineral content of bone creates a crystalline structure that not only supports weight but also transmits sound. Remember that feeling watching a parade go by and the sound of the bass drums vibrating your body? The body reverberates with all sound, and the bones are particularly resonant.

The experience of vibration in the bones emerged as a deep blue in these pieces.  As I worked on the series I was also preoccupied with a dread about the melting of polar ice caps and the loss of that anchor for the earth’s temperature and water systems. This concern seems to have seeped into this series, because the images look like ice and deep water.  For me the pieces contain both the original source and the underlying emotional content.

‘Sluice’ refers to a narrow passage through which water is channeled.  It’s also a verb meaning to run water over, as in mining, to rinse the dirt from the gold or silver.