PAULA DAMM
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    • Reliquary - Personal Identifiers as Sacred Objects
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Reliquary - Personal Identifiers as Sacred Objects

In 2018, I learned that 911 calls are captured by police scanner cell phone apps allowing the public to have a direct access to conversations between police and dispatcher.  Noting that the shared information being broadcast included citizen’s personal identifiers—names, social security numbers, dates of birth, phone numbers—I became concerned about the public’s accessibility to a private citizen’s information, whether suspects or victims of crimes. From February 2019 to July 2019, I randomly documented instances in which this information was shared over 911 dispatch, and subsequently the police dispatch phone app.  My objective in this piece is to document these precious personal identifiers and encase them in or on these felted orbs, or within weaving patterns - obscuring and encasing these pieces of identifying language in the way that sacred reliquaries hold the bones of saints.

Personal Identifier as Sacred Object #1-18 with Journal Nuggets. The orbs are accompanied by my pulverized journal on which I documented identifiers. Gold paint to symbolize gold nuggets. The plaster cast hands are my own.
Close-up
Personal Identifier as Sacred Object #19. Identifiers typed onto hand made and dyed paper, cut and woven to obscure identifiers.
Close-up
Personal Identifier as Sacred Object #20. Identifiers typed as woven to obscure identifiers.
Close up.
Identifiers typed onto hand made and dyed paper, torn, spun with linen thread and woven to obliterate identifiers. 2019
Identifiers obliterated using embossing key on vintage typewriter. 2019
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  • Home
  • Projects
    • Paper
    • Weaving
    • Weaving - Reliquary - Indigo
    • Stitch - TogetherVoice
    • Stitch : Marks of St. Clare
    • Stitch : Ascemic / Visual Poetry
    • Stitch - Portraits
    • To Jessie, Love, Tom
    • Losses
    • Reliquary - Personal Identifiers as Sacred Objects
    • Non-medical grade face mask # 1-314
    • Life Masks
    • Photos
    • Based on Current Event
    • Collaborations
  • Bio
  • Contact