ArtReach St. Croix Member Show

2025

An exhibition recognizing the talent of ArtReach members.

“Signal/Body” was a performance installation created for the exhibition by Victoria Bradford Styrbicki. As stated by Styrbicki, Signal/Body is a choreographic score born out of silence. Drawing from semaphore signaling and the International Code of Signals—systems developed to communicate urgency across vast and uncertain waters—this performance turns maritime language into a deeply personal and poetic embodiment. Each movement signals what words cannot say, tracing messages from inside the body to the outside world.

The phrases I use—Tremendous Imagination, Forgotten Faith, Volatile Recovery—aren’t abstract. They are real states I move through, sometimes daily. Each gesture I perform is tied to those words. I carry them, physically. I hold tension, I try to rebuild grace. There’s a story here, even if it isn’t told in a straight line.

At times, I try a Ridiculous Intervention—those moments when I reach for change in situations that resist transformation. The effort can feel futile, like sending signals into a void. I come back to center when I Remember Home. Not just a geographic place, though Louisiana is etched in my bones, but a feeling of grounding. It’s a way of recalling that I belong somewhere, even if that somewhere is simply within.

These phrases become landmarks for me—each one a signal sent to whoever’s watching, maybe even to myself. The piece travels through grief, through uncertainty, and into something that resembles hope. Even when the ground is shifting, I search for high ground, for a safe place. There’s a sense of return in it all—Look Back: Finale—not to dwell in the past, but to understand it, hold it, and maybe begin again.

This work is deeply personal. Every flag is crocheted by hand, every semaphore gesture translated through my body. But it’s not just about me—it’s an invitation. To witness. To feel. To interpret. Maybe even to remember something in yourself. Signal/Body is a way to stay in motion when I feel stuck. It’s how I am making meaning when language fails. It’s how I am telling the truth without having to explain everything.After the performance, I invite you to join the conversation in your own way. A second set of crocheted signal flags is available for you to explore. Use the gestural alphabet inscribed on the windows to try your hand at semaphore. Feel what it’s like to speak through your arms, your breath, your body. Let the movements be clumsy or graceful—either way, they are yours. What are you trying to say — and who is listening?

Date

July 10 – August 23, 2025

Place

ArtReach St. Croix, Stillwater, MN

Lead Artist

Victoria Bradford Styrbicki

Materials

Cotton crochet, Wooden flag poles, Laminated paper, Pencil color, Marker

Photo

© A House Unbuilt