forecast (verb): to predict or calculate a future event based on the interpretation of observable natural phenomena
Found on porches and in front yards, traditional weather prediction tools such as windsocks, weathervanes and whirligigs embody human ritual and resilience, but have drifted into the realm of decoration, nostalgia and kitsch. In acts of historical roleplay, I reclaim and reconfigure these instruments to create counterpoints grounded in memory, labor, and shared cultural knowledge. When set into motion by the viewer, a gentle breeze, or chance, these objects activate a space where intuition and shared knowledge converge. In this activation, they become instruments of hope in a moment defined by uncertainty, inviting us to trust our bodies, our senses, and the wisdom that persists across generations.
Language itself becomes another tool of forecasting. Weather aphorisms form a generational warning system about how to navigate the natural world and one another. In this exhibition, appropriated weather-related sayings have been hand-painted in the style of old sign-painting traditions meant to signal, attract, inform, and instruct. These phrases are universal yet locally inflected. Even when their origins are unclear, we understand that they gesture toward impending barometric shifts tied to observable phenomena like pressure, humidity, and temperature. Passed down orally, they linger in the mind long after technology has taken over the work of prediction.
These transformed artifacts, once essential to human survival and productivity, now stand as quiet gestures of comfort and resilience in the face of environmental and cultural instability. By engaging with their material histories, I imagine new roles for these objects in an unreliable future.
