ICA Residency Submission & Work Samples
Project/Exhibit: Dead Mom Talking
SubTitle: Death is Not the End. Love is the End-All.
Artist
Lindsay White
Medium
Exhibition: Multimedia: Stylized Prose & Lyrics | Heirlooms | Archival and Editorial Photography | Audio | Interactive Group Journaling/Processing (+potential live concert performance and prose reading for opening/special events)
Story: Nonfiction | Memoir | Spirituality | Nostalgia | Speculative Future
Songs: Folk | Americana | Blues | Indie
Project Description
Dead Mom Talking is a mixed-media project tracing my estrangement from my mother (shaped by tension between her faith my queer identity) and our reconnection after her death through purposeful meditation and accidental mediumship. I will weave storytelling, song, nostalgia, future-building, into an interactive exhibition that combines prose, lyrics, music, family heirlooms, archival and editorial photos, collage, and communal processing. Together, these elements meet at the intersection of absence and presence, searching an impossible past and finding a limitless future in its stead.
The installation unfolds as song components:
Project/Exhibit: Dead Mom Talking
SubTitle: Death is Not the End. Love is the End-All.
Artist
Lindsay White
Medium
Exhibition: Multimedia: Stylized Prose & Lyrics | Heirlooms | Archival and Editorial Photography | Audio | Interactive Group Journaling/Processing (+potential live concert performance and prose reading for opening/special events)
Story: Nonfiction | Memoir | Spirituality | Nostalgia | Speculative Future
Songs: Folk | Americana | Blues | Indie
Project Description
Dead Mom Talking is a mixed-media project tracing my estrangement from my mother (shaped by tension between her faith my queer identity) and our reconnection after her death through purposeful meditation and accidental mediumship. I will weave storytelling, song, nostalgia, future-building, into an interactive exhibition that combines prose, lyrics, music, family heirlooms, archival and editorial photos, collage, and communal processing. Together, these elements meet at the intersection of absence and presence, searching an impossible past and finding a limitless future in its stead.
The installation unfolds as song components:
- Verse 1: Childhood memories situate generational trauma within time’s echo.
- Verse 2: Adolescence and early adulthood grapple with identity, expectation, and the paradox of losing a mother in life and again in death.
- Bridge: A collapsing of physical boundaries and traditional norms, opening cosmic communication channels across time and space.
- Chorus: Reframes grief as a tool to forge new ways of being in relationship to ourselves and each other. Champions systems of care that are rooted in creative collaboration, chosen family, social accountability, inclusivity, and a steadfast commitment to the safety and wellness of all children. (We're all children!)
SAMPLE ARCHIVAL PHOTOS
Work Sample #1 - bedtime - 2025, in progress - size TBD - layered archival photos of Lindsay and mother from childhood bedtime and on mother's deathbed;
envision a vignette of works that blur life stages
Work Sample #2 - tick - 2025, in progress - size TBD - envision large wall decal application or textured wheatpaste - lyrics here for conceptual purposes, but would be stylized with custom handwritten typeface. Envision accenting piece with actual physical watches from the photo, some working/ticking, some dead.
Work Sample #3 - channeling, 2021 - size TBD - archival photo documenting spiritual communication with my mother during my pregnancy, through handwriting. Envisioning a vignette of similar scribbles and scratches. (like a cosmic etch-a-sketch - the visual representation of my dead mom actually talking).
SAMPLE EDITORIAL PHOTOS
Dead Mom Talking editorial portraits - 2025 - in progress, size TBD. Art direction/styling by Lindsay White, photography by Sydney Valiente. Envision at least 2 interactive pause-and-process stations accented by these portraits - lyrics here for conceptual purposes, would be stylized with custom handwritten typeface. Envision accenting stations with physical items and heirlooms.
Work Sample #4 - "lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu" (loosely "may all souls be happy and free") / Envision an interactive "sunlight" pause and process station: brightly lit area with meditation pillows/ altar with hourglass and other heirlooms (people can take/leave items). A community mindfulness/gratitude journal will be available for reflections.
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Work Sample #5 - "it hurts to pretend" / Envision interactive "bed rot" pause and process station: dimly lit area with mattress/blankets community grief journal, books, hourglass - people can lay down and write, read, feel, think.
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SAMPLE VIDEOS
Work Sample #6 - "it's cold in here" 2015 - adding a little levity to the mix - video collage showcasing the surreal, so-heavy-it's-hilarious timewarp that is entering what poet Lizzie Wann calls "The Hospice Bubble" - caretaking for a loved one rapidly approaching death's door- attempting to hold space for humor as you take on the emotional burden of loss but also the physical burden of so.much.stuff.
Work Sample #7 - "sunlight meditation" 2024 - video excerpt illustrating one of several ways I am able to slow time down and "commune" with spirit. (blur on shirt will be refined to cover logo completely; audio will be muted or replaced with audio I produce and own).
SAMPLE AUDIO
River
Work Sample #8 - River - 2025, in progress - envision large wall decal application or wheatpaste, removable headphones hang over River's head for listening to this song; The collage traces River’s journey from a fetus temporarily entrusted to my womb (via embryo adoption), to a free child belonging to the universe, surrounded by infinite acceptance, love, and possibility. Images are layered over the landscape of my mother’s favorite Arroyo Grande coastal walk, interwoven with images of her wild youth and me submitting to my grief state after her death, using it as transformational lesson in protection, love, and sacrifice. The piece nods to natural cycles of birth, growth, and death, reflecting the ever-shifting and dynamics of mother–daughter relationships.
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"River" lyrics
i was trying hard but losing hope til they handed me a picture of you through the microscope the precise surprise recipe of you you were swimming’ round my belly i was drowning in gratitude When you came to me (River) you were three weeks early but right on time when the earth and the moon and the sun aligned the small but all-consuming bundle of you you were light as a feather i was heavy with gratitude when you came through me (River) i was shaking like a leaf but solid as a rock and i just stared in disbelief as you crawled and walked and talked the blessings and lessons i’m learning with you you are wide in reach i am deep in gratitude When you come to me (River) |
Fortunate Fucker
Work Sample #9 - fortunate fucker - 2025, in progress. paired with visual representation (art direction/styling by Lindsay White, photography by Sydney Valiente) of how people across world are surviving different degrees of occupation, connected by digital “bridges”, experiencing wildly different realities despite living on the planet simultaneously - distraction, rage, guilt, despair, and the tension between physical isolation and digital connection are all at work.
Envision a communication-based paper trail framing the work: direct messages with Palestinian families in urgent need, unanswered messages to political representatives demanding ceasefire, household bills that persist regardless of crisis, and a check to the IRS as a symbol of complicity in the war machine. An interactive "community care station" will extend the work, inviting attendees to recommit to or pledge new ways of relating to each other and the world (ie, boycotting purchase of new tech, joining local mutual aid) - responses will be collected in person and online and compiled into a follow-up reflection piece at close of exhibit called "We Will." |
"Fortunate Fucker" lyrics
i think i’m gonna throw myself a ticker tape parade i got groceries in the fridge and dinner every day i got water in the shower that’s nice and steamy in a house with a roof and a wife that’s dreamy i got coffee in my cup with a splash of creamer raise my daughter up with a kind demeanor got gas in the tank and love galore i can wipe my own ass, who could ask for more? what do you mean there’s other mothers crying for their babies and ducking for cover? they can’t even find a can of beans while i’m writing fat checks to the war machine should i still throw myself a ticker tape parade? still got so many things i can celebrate like access privilege generational wealth buncha therapy to learn how to love myself by the time i came around all my white skinned kin were pretty much wrapping up their genocidin’ i got zoloft in my brain and love galore i can wipe my own ass, who could ask for more? what do you mean they’re not done yet? stealing peoples’ land and making up threats blowing Black and Brown people to smithereens while i'm writing fat checks to the war machine i’m still gonna show my gratitude but the parade is canceled, i’m not in the mood i'm thinking my time might be better spent not saving the world, but making a dent i got luckier than most and that’s okay but lucky’s not a reason to look the other way the way i see it now, i hope you do too If you’re a fortunate fucker you’ve got work to do |
We Will - closing reception piece
(Not my pic) Inspiration/Concept only
Work sample #10 - We Will (concept stages - image is not mine, just using for visual reference)
Pledge cards from the "Fortunate Fucker" community care station will be collected and assembled into a mosaic backdrop for the closing reception concert, which will feature a live performance of the song "We Will" among other songs and readings from Dead Mom Talking. I'm still conceptualizing, but envisioning hexagonal tiles joining together in a hive/quilt pattern to represent humanity moving away from isolation and toward community-minded, collaborative future-building. Community pledge titles will likely be interspersed with additional tiles featuring mini-snapshots from the entire collection: archival photos, letters, collage-style pieces etc.
Pledge cards from the "Fortunate Fucker" community care station will be collected and assembled into a mosaic backdrop for the closing reception concert, which will feature a live performance of the song "We Will" among other songs and readings from Dead Mom Talking. I'm still conceptualizing, but envisioning hexagonal tiles joining together in a hive/quilt pattern to represent humanity moving away from isolation and toward community-minded, collaborative future-building. Community pledge titles will likely be interspersed with additional tiles featuring mini-snapshots from the entire collection: archival photos, letters, collage-style pieces etc.
We Will lyrics
you can mess up, you can fix it
you can fight for what is right or you can forget it
you can draw outside the lines
go fast or slow or still
it’s your life, it’s your time, do with it what you will
you can wander you can plan
go looking for the truth or stick your head in the sand
you can think outside the box
you can build destroy or kill
it’s your life, it’s your time, do with it what you will
you might lose, and you might win
it’s ok, just keep playin’
should you sink into despair
i’m using my time lifting you up
i ain’t going nowhere
we can do it, don’t deny it
we can keep each other safe so why not try it
we can put our heads and hearts together til we heal
it’s our life, it’s our time do with it what we will
you can mess up, you can fix it
you can fight for what is right or you can forget it
you can draw outside the lines
go fast or slow or still
it’s your life, it’s your time, do with it what you will
you can wander you can plan
go looking for the truth or stick your head in the sand
you can think outside the box
you can build destroy or kill
it’s your life, it’s your time, do with it what you will
you might lose, and you might win
it’s ok, just keep playin’
should you sink into despair
i’m using my time lifting you up
i ain’t going nowhere
we can do it, don’t deny it
we can keep each other safe so why not try it
we can put our heads and hearts together til we heal
it’s our life, it’s our time do with it what we will