SANCTUARY Video Made by Artist Victoria May on December 24, 2025
“Sanctuary: Know Safe Space” expands upon Debra Disman’s 2023 piece, “K no W Safe Place” with the addition of a hanging roof surrounded by an inverted “forest” of knotted colored cords added to and developing over time, hung from the ceiling in various arrangements allowing pathways to the suspended black sanctuary space. The installation grew and changed over time with the addition of these hanging elements Disman also engaged in dialogue with others inside the Sanctuary space, informally videotaping these participants’ response to the installation and their immersion in it, as well as offering “interviewees’ the opportunity to share about their own practices, projects and practices, especially as they relate to 18th Street Arts Center. These short-form videos serve as an informal archive of our present moment, the role of the creative process in it, and the support and sanctuary 18th Street Arts Center is offering to the community by allowing us to Know Safe Space. Interview with Artist and Educator Victoria May in the "SANCTUARY: Know Safe Space" installation on December 24, 2025. "From tent cities to opulent palaces, I am alternately touched and outraged—yet all the while fascinated—by human invention. For all our attempts at sophistication and control, there is the inevitable random or abject element; the fly in the typewriter. My constructions, ranging from installations to wall works, examine this interaction through jarring juxtapositions of ordinary materials. In using recognizable (and surprising) detritus and surplus from everyday life, these junctures stand as metaphors for the contradictions we witness daily. Obstinate concrete molds itself into voluptuous curves formed by seams in thin organza. The refined shimmer of silk and brocade takes on the quality of innards as it issues forth from industrially stitched rubber. I often rely on raw materials and found objects to function as would text or imagery, allowing the history, function, metaphorical value and/or sensibility of each element to contribute to the work’s intent, along with my own investment of labor. My process of creation blends intent with accident. Through both humorously crude and painstakingly delicate handwork, I welcome the random element that exposes the absurdity, beauty, and vulnerability in our well-intended machinations." --Victoria May https://vicmay.com/ (Website) @victoria.may.art (Instagram) https://www.facebook.com/victoria.may (Facebook)
