#press.lectures

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Featured in Emergency Index Vol. 10

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Residency at Three Phase Center

Valerie K Sharp on her Process

Stone Ridge NY, March 2019

Filmed and Edited by Nina Isabelle

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Artist Talk-Back and Q&A

Juniper - Performance Art Piece by Valerie K Sharp

Four Artists, Four Perspectives, Gallery40

Poughkeepsie NY, November 2018

Materials: Flour, Apples, Paint

This performance art piece is based off of the Grimm’s Fairytale, The Juniper Tree. My intention for this performance is to symbolically bury the guilt that is misdirected onto children of abuse.

The Juniper Tree - A Summary In this story, a woman wishes to give birth to a little boy while under a juniper tree, eating an apple in the snow. Her wish comes true and she gives birth to the boy of her dreams, but dies in childbirth. Her husband buries her beneath the juniper tree. He remarries and has a daughter with his new wife. The new wife abuses the little boy throughout his childhood because she is jealous of her husband’s first marriage. She cannot stand the idea of the boy getting all of the inheritance, so she lures him in with an apple and murders him. She sets it up in such a way that the little girl believes that it was actually her fault. In sorrow, the little girl creates a ritual in which she wraps up her brother’s bones in cloth and buries him beneath the juniper tree. His spirit becomes a bird, singing sweetly in the tree and singing the truth of the story. The bird brings a gold chain to the father, red shoes to his sister, and a millstone (to grind flour) to drop on the step mother, thus killing her and bringing justice to the end of the tale.

Artist Statement

I am fascinated with the transformative power of darkness within fairytales. In these stories, childhood does not equate to innocence, but rather the children experience the shadows of life to the fullest.   Many of the stories take place in the forest, unknown and dark, through which all journeys and transformations move. I see this mythic forest as a metaphor for our subconscious mind, in which all shadows take shape. We create our surroundings and we become our stories.  Through the telling, hearing, and retelling of fairytales, we tap into our personal as well as our collective psychology and journey through the shadows to the light. In my own inner searchings, I have found that I cannot ignore the darkness, but rather must move through the darkness (mythically, psychologically, physically) in order to find the light. Transformation comes from the journey, and at the end we find that the shadow and the light actually coexist harmoniously, allowing our experience to transcend from fear to wholeness.

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IMDB Page

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Featured on the cover of Chronogram, October 2018

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Interview on The Secret City Radio Hour, Kingston NY

September 24th, 2018

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Interview by Rob Galgano

O+ Festival, Kingston NY, October 2017

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Connections and Entanglements Artist Talk

Amy Hanson and Valerie K Sharp

Oklahoma Christian University

Edmond Oklahoma, October 2014

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People’s History of Film Podcast Interview