Work-in-Progress

Signaling Through Silence (working title) is an interdisciplinary body of work (in-progress) that translates the language of maritime communication into an evocative system of movement, material, and gesture. Drawing from the International Code of Signals (ICS) and semaphore flag signaling, the project uses crochet, drawing, performance, and participatory practices to explore situations where people are silenced and we must find other ways to communicate our trauma.

The first set of assets includes full-scale crochet signal flags, made to precise ICS specifications and sequenced to convey coded messages. These tactile works reference one of a series of “choreographed” phrases suggesting emotional resonance beneath maritime utility. Accompanying these are hand-drawn flag illustrations, pairing the poetics of coded language with delicate materiality to explore collapse, grief-tending, and resilience. Each set of illustrations is in progress of being crocheted into full-size flags for eventual exhibition.

The portfolio also includes documentation of semaphore performances, in which the artist uses crocheted O (Oscar) flags in a choreographic structure to physically transmit unspoken messages. These performances have occurred in state parks and galleries, and are supported by choreographic notation systems visible in the portfolio.

Additional components include concept flags—“white flags of surrender” crocheted in fine cotton to suggest delicacy and erasure—and “no-nation” flags that question the increase in nationalism and identity politics through improvisational design.

Finally, the work includes a participatory element, inviting audiences to make their own flag-based messages using the ICS. This gives voice to the community’s unheard thoughts and feelings through this simple and elegant coded symbology.

Together, these assets reflect a deep commitment to material experimentation, cultural semiotics, and bodily knowledge. Funded in part by a Louisiana Project Grant, Signal/Body is a growing project that weaves contemporary conceptual language with the folkways of signal craft, bearing witness to what must be said without saying.