extinct mussel resurrection spell

Gilded Shadows, May 25-September 17, 2024, Park Towne Place, Philadelphia

Salt, flour, neon pink mason line, 50” x 50” x 96” (NFS)

Extinct Mussel Resurrection Spell is part of a transdisciplinary collaborative project titled Delisted 2023. For Delisted, artists and writers were paired with thirty-two plant and animal species that, presumably extinct, were removed from under the United States Endangered Species Act of 1966. I was paired with the Yellow Blossom Pearly Mussel. I spent months doing little more than thinking of it. I was haunted by a photo of a specimen in the Field Museum Zoological collection—pearlescent shells inside a glass jar, numbered, wound with red twine, stopped at the top with cotton wool. I was working on a poetry manuscript titled “Sky Burial.” Eventually, the mussel started showing up in my poems.

I flip between writing and visual art. When I finished “Sky Burial” I started thinking about the order and wonder of mussel lines, suspended underwater. I learned that a trick for mussel farming is to lay mussel larvae (glochidia), on a clean surface and to sprinkle salt on them. If a glochidium reaches for the salt, it is considered viable for mussel rope or host fish.  

Salt holds many connotations beyond nutrition.

Salt for luck. As antiseptic. For a stain. Salt to preserve. Salt to kill. Salt as protection, or, in this case, resurrection spell.

Extinct Mussel Resurrection Spell is an installation of 44 strands of salt dough beads hung from individual hooks at 4-inch increments, creating a square semi-transparent envelope of space. The spell is enacted each time a visitor steps through the 24-inch opening to the space. There is a childlike naivety to the idea that one could bring an animal back from extinction with flour, water, and salt. This spell will not work—the beads will settle and crack, revealing their armatures. The moment I installed this piece, it began to degrade. In that way, this piece is about acceptance.

Delisted 2023 asks “How do we attend to the more than human others when we encounter them at a point beyond precarity? How do we find beauty and joy?” For me, the answer lies in the repetitive and ritualistic nature of this kind of artmaking.

gilded shadows

Curated by Clare Finin

Gilded Shadows presents the work of five artists who explore how humans rationalize the mysteries of the world. The included artists Sarah Gutwirth, Summer J. Hart, Claire Owen, Christopher Poehlmann, and Shelby Reed investigate the human impulse to explain the ineffable mysteries of the unknown through references of scientific categorization, cultural folklore, and invented fairy tales. Through their art, they illuminate the ever-present tension between our desire for understanding and the enigmatic forces that elude explanation. Together, these artists invite viewers to ponder the boundaries between reality and fantasy, and the stories that lie within the shadows.

This exhibition was curated by InLiquid and is installed within the towers at Park Towne Place Premier Apartments.

Summer J. Hart reads “Small to Medium-sized Streams,” her written contribution to Delisted 2023. “Extinct Mussel Resurrection Spell” is the visual counterpoint.