Nicole Salimbene: Devotion Instigates Change
As a visual/installation artist working at the intersection of poetics, psychology, environmentalism and contemplative practice, Nicole Salimbene’s art aims to provoke self-inquiry and relationality toward deeper understandings of a shared spiritual ecology. Nicole invites viewers to enter contemplative spaces and to engage questions that arise from the wrestling of internal and external worlds. Her inquiry-based work has asked participants to sit, settle into themselves, and to reflect on matters of the heart, spirit, and nature. She is interested in the questions that arise in the spaces between being, making and transforming–How does devotion instigate change? How do we mend or make reparations? What is the role of empathy in art-making? How do we cross the bridges between ourselves, and within ourselves, between the seen and the unseen? What awareness grows as we understand how we are holding and beholding our animate world?
-Nicole Salimbene
Contemplating Water, 2015
Installation view at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Washington, DC. Test-tubes, water, wood, meditation cushions.
Contemplating Water, 2015
Installation view at the National Arboretum, Washington, DC. Test-tubes, water, wood, meditation cushions.
Mending Waters, 2016.
Needles, thread, and wood. 60 x 108 x .5 in.
Mending, 2016.
Installation view at Flashpoint Gallery, Washington, DC. Needles, thread, reclaimed wooden table, World Atlas pages, meditation cushions, cement, earth from Santuario de Chimayo, wood, paint, scissors, thread spool
Mending Table, 2016.
Needles, thread, reclaimed wooden table, World Atlas pages, meditation cushions, cement, earth from Santuario de Chimayo, wood, paint, scissors, thread spool. 48 x 120 x 16 in.
When Pressed, 2016.
Needles, thread, ironing board, cushion, Zen meditation bench, cement bowl, thread spool, and scissors. 24 x 40 x 20 in.
Unfolding, 2017
Water, earth, roots, pitcher, glasses, cement, medicine cabinet, ironing boards, desk chair, lunch box, glassine envelopes, maps, silk thread, mustard seeds, lima bean seeds, dictionary pages, projected images, acrylic paint, paper, bone folder.
Unfolding, 2017
Water, earth, roots, pitcher, glasses, cement, medicine cabinet, ironing boards, desk chair, lunch box, glassine envelopes, maps, silk thread, mustard seeds, lima bean seeds, dictionary pages, projected images, acrylic paint, paper, bone folder.
Photo slides, led lights, wood, glass funnels, water, drinking glasses, bench
Unfolding, 2017.
Water, earth, roots, pitcher, glasses, cement, medicine cabinet, ironing boards, desk chair, lunch box, glassine envelopes, maps, silk thread, mustard seeds, lima bean seeds, dictionary pages, projected images, acrylic paint, paper, bone folder.
