Deliquesce: Mary Babcock

In chemistry, to “deliquesce” is to absorb water to the point of liquifying and melting away, as some salts may do. In a new exhibition at the East Hawai‘i Cultural Center, visual and performance artist Mary Babcock takes this concept and applies it to sea level rise and climate change in the Pacific. Nature absorbs the impact of human interventions, but dissolution may be the end result. 

 

Babcock’s primary medium is household wax paper, which she chooses for its paradoxical and metaphorical nature - it is meant to preserve and protect, yet is itself fragile and impermanent. Her works, which are highly labor-intensive, address our often myopic attempts to harness nature’s power for self-interest, and the reverberations of such arrogance. Inspired by multiple narratives from across the Pacific, Babcock mends her pieces together as a personal and political gesture of restoration and repair.