USA
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Daphane Park began her career in painting and poetry. Her practice now encompasses objects, installation and performance experimenting with energy, transformation, and healing ritual. Her work is an inquiry into the mythical realms of humanity and nature. The spaces she creates are an invitation to sense the physical, emotional and energetic relationships between nature and human. Her intention is to create an energy field from layering carefully selected materials that emulate the accumulation of life itself. Many of her installations engage all of the senses including the subtle energy body through the use of sounds, fragrances, elixirs and materials specific to each environment. Park’s investigations highlight a need to question the basic categories and values through which we look at societies today.Park’s research and experiences with ancient and indigenous land-based cultures as well as her own Native American ancestry led her to study energy medicine from across the globe, including work in the far interior Amazon, where she lived and studied under two Shaman Dreamers (Zapara communities of Peru and Ecuador). Park has studied performance from Joan Jonas, Anna Halprin, and Linda Montano, as well as energy medicine and movement from masters of Butoh, Qi Gong, Curanderas in Mexico, and Shaman in the Amazonia.
Park’s work has exhibited internationally and has received numerous grants and awards. As a recipient of a Fulbright research award and a grant from the Cultural Affairs Department of the US Embassy in Ecuador, where she lived and worked for 2 years, she launched a solo exhibition that traveled to various museums in South America. In addition she has held teaching appointments at the Universidad Central (Quito, Ecuador), University of Texas at Austin and Castiglione Fiorentino, Italy. Park’s work has been shown at special projects for the New Orleans Biennial and Moscow Biennial as well as the New Museum’s Festival of Ideas, and Museum of Old and New Art, Australia.
