Artist Shana Moulton discusses wellness culture, self-care practices, and navigating middle age, reflecting on personal experiences and the broader societal trends that influence individual well-being.
Shana Moulton's art studio, located at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she has served as art department chair since July 2024, boasts walls painted a saturated pastel green-an hue she describes as "adequate enough to serve as a green screen." The studio doubled as a set for Moulton's video installation, "Meta/Physical Therapy,"which showcased at the Museum of Modern Art in New York last spring. The exhibition revolved around Moulton's semi-autobiographical alter ego, Cynthia, a middle-aged, hypochondriacal white woman with an unfortunate bob and melancholic eyes.
Entering Moulton's studio feels akin to stepping into a New Age physical therapy office, replete with modular furniture, gemstone-hued gadgets, and an assorted collection of objects that would not seem out of place in a roadside crystal shop or megamall electronics store. Moulton's objects extend beyond mere props, as she explains in a 2014 interview with Art21: "They tend to assume a life of their own."
"Whispering Pines," Moulton's breakthrough video series from 2002-2018, depicted Cynthia attempting to self-soothe through continuous acquisition of products, ranging from miniature fountains to Avon reflexology gloves. The objects in Cynthia's home are animated in an Adobe After Effects dreamscape, merging her digital and analog worlds. The series is named after the Oakhurst, California, senior citizen mobile home park where Moulton grew up and blends 1980s kitsch with New Age aesthetics. An haute couture hemorrhoid pillow, fashioned into a lilac dress, conceals a portal to another realm, while the art of floral arrangement, accompanied by an instrumental Enya cover, becomes an alchemical act.
Twenty years after the conception of Cynthia, Moulton, now older herself, continues to embody this character to delve into products and exercises promising pain relief, most recently in a series of performances created in collaboration with composer Nick Hallett.
On an unusually rainy Saturday in Santa Barbara last November, Moulton shared some of her cherished gadgets and provided a tour of her favorite buildings, traversing the city on the same Super Handy scooter that Cynthia used in "Meta/Physical Therapy." Below, she discusses hypochondria, hospital art, and the absurdities of the wellness consumerism industry.
In the course of their conversation, Moulton shared her affinity for a Visible Woman toy doll, previously used in one of her undergraduate performances at Berkeley in 1998. The doll comes with organs, which Moulton filled with glittery, rainbow fishing lure worms in her performance. She then surgically removed the worms, showcasing a close-up projection over her body.
Venturing into energy-shielding territory, Moulton showcased a pyramid, expressing her attempts to craft orgonite, a substance based on Wilhelm Reich's orgone energy. Organite is designed to balance energy or shield individuals from harmful frequencies and is typically constructed from copper, crystals, and resin.
Growing up in the Bible Belt of California, Moulton found herself drawn to mystical practices, discovering esoteric texts and ideologies through public library perusals before the advent of the internet. At Berkeley in the '90s, she encountered this ethos more concrete in her roommate's involvement with the Mother Wave and acquaintance with self-proclaimed dolphin communicators, who claimed to belong to the FBI.
Moulton grappled with the limited understanding of mysticism in her community, where any beliefs outside of Christianity were viewed as demonic and poorly informed. Encouragingly, her father, an astrologer, was one exception, and he played a significant role in her cosmic understanding.
The spinal decompression devices displayed in Moulton's studio captured her attention, planned for use in alleviating her head and neck pain, although she admitted to seldom employing them.
In her Art21 video, Moulton addressed her hypochondria, confessing that she eternally questions the legitimacy of her health issues. This resonated with her interviewer, who shared similar feelings stemming from her hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) diagnosis. She explained how the diagnostic process for hEDS can be subjective, leading to experiences of misdiagnosis and medical gaslighting. Nonetheless, she maintained that these experiences have been generative for her artistic practice.
Moulton's curiosity was piqued by the neck braces worn by Cynthia in "Whispering Pines." Intrigued by their embellishments and coordination with Cynthia's dresses, she revealed that she began her "Medical Dresses" series in grad school, incorporating medical devices into her wardrobe. Some of the neck braces were gifts, while others were her grandparents'. The hemorrhoid pillow was a thrift store find.
As a physical anthropology student, Moulton was fascinated by bipedalism and the complexities of maintaining an upright posture. Curious about the relationship between bipedalism and consciousness, she, along with other artists like Rebecca Horn, Matthew Barney, and Hussein Chalayan, sought to extend the body through costume and appendages. Moulton stopped using these dresses after a few years, acknowledging they were not her territory, and did not yet have a personal connection to the medical devices depicted. However, she expressed a desire to return to this exploration, particularly now that it has become more relevant to her personal life.
Moulton's work embraces her experiences growing up in a senior citizen community, exploring themes of aging and sickness. Reflecting on her visits to hospitals with her ailing family members, she spoke of a fascination with well-appointed hospitals, relishing their art and design. Despite encountering self-help books with toxic positivity in "Whispering Pines 5" (2005), Moulton advocates for exploring the mind-body connection critically, instead of succumbing to shame or self-blame whenever her work intersects with aspects of her life she finds troubling or embarrassing. "Whispering Pines' narrative often focuses on the absurdities and contradictions of wellness culture, providing an ironic perspective on self-improvement and the need for better healthcare systems and support structures.
- Shana Moulton's art studio, adorned with a pastel green hue, resembles a New Age physical therapy office, housing modular furniture, gemstone-colored gadgets, and an assortment of objects reminiscent of a roadside crystal shop or megamall electronics store.
- Moulton's breakthrough video series, "Whispering Pines," introduces Cynthia, a semi-autobiographical character who attempts to find pain relief through the continuous acquisition of products, ranging from miniature fountains to Avon reflexology gloves.
- In her studio, Moulton exhibits objects that extend beyond mere props, as they "tend to assume a life of their own," as she explained in a 2014 interview with Art21.
- Moulton's work is displayed in museums and exhibitions, such as the Museum of Modern Art, where her video installation "Meta/Physical Therapy" was showcased last spring.
- Moulton's art explores themes of aging, sickness, and mental health, drawing from her experiences growing up in a senior citizen community and visiting hospitals with her ailing family members.
- Moulton advocates for a critical examination of the mind-body connection and the absurdities of the wellness consumerism industry, providing an ironic perspective on self-improvement and the need for better healthcare systems and support structures.
- Amidst her art studio, Moulton showcases energy-shielding items like a pyramid, designed to balance energy or shield individuals from harmful frequencies, and a Visible Woman toy doll filled with glittery, rainbow fishing lure worms, previously used in one of her undergraduate performances at Berkeley in 1998.
