JULIA BETTS
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Picking, bleeding

2016
site specific installation, walls and floors removed through placing dots of hot glue on a wall and then prying them off with a metal spatula, over and over

This piece is a site-specific intervention to a room. On first entering the room, it appears speckled, and, upon further inspection, the viewer realizes that the entire surface of the room has been picked at fingertip-sized intervals (every wall and floor of the room). To pick uniformly, I first place dots of hot glue on the surface. Then, I pick the hot glue blisters off with a metal spatula.
The removal process revealed the history of the room hidden within the walls, including:
a phrase written with pencil by one of the windows: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change”,
a drawing of dandelions,
brown drywall tape,
a reflection of myself. Someone had put aluminum foil into the wall— creating a reflective surface.
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Imagining the wall as a skin and the body as room, each removal formed part of a swarm and an exposed wound. The experience was meant to sublimate against the walls, but, through the rigor of the process, my hands blistered and, sometimes, bled. The wall became a mirror not only imagination, but in actuality. 


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 Afterwards, I peeled all the paint from the walls in skins and also cut drywall out from the wall.
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photograph of peeled away skins from original room installed at Washington College (photographs from Washington College taken by Julie Wills)
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removed dots from room 
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​removed drywall fragments installed in gallery
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