Outside the Lines

Emma Kivisild

Message in a Bottle
glass, paper, wood, wax, cork

Messages in bottles travel great distances in time and space, very slowly, at the mercy of the elements, to no specific receiver.

My project begins with 15”X15” squares of paper, cut into smaller squares and inscribed with messages – from the mundane to the philosophical. Each message goes into a glass bottle, in a glass enclosure. The result is a body of glass, at once strong and fragile, simultaneously saying everything, and unable to express any of it.

My disability – Multiple Sclerosis – is a disease of the nervous system where the deterioration of the myelin sheath means that nervous messages travel slowly or not at all. I am in this network of demylenated nerves. I am waiting for them to get going with their job of sending messages properly or accurately, but they just don’t.

This is where I live.

Velveeta Krisp