The rock and the wind Art Exhibition in Portsmouth, NH

The rock understands how it shapes the wind. My son Jasper turned six the first year of the pandemic, and I orbited around him with my camera, attempting to better understand his world. I'm not sure he understands the camera, but he loves to look at the photographs on the bright computer screen. Jasper has multiple disabilities, including neurological blindness and hearing loss. His language is limited, and his words engage with repetition. I was making photographs in search of translation. One day I set the self-timer and entered the camera frame. My late 30s and early 40s were plagued by several serious illnesses. For the first time in my life, I became intimately entwined with the sensation of impermanence. Life was no longer something that stretched out in front of me with a faraway horizon. Each day felt unknown, unpromised.

stars slept over
murmur mother
mountains still
murmur mother
sun warmed rocks
murmur mother
enveloped earth
murmur mother
soft peeling skin
murmur mother
double trunked birch
murmur mother
without language
murmur mother
complicated history
murmur mother
refuge and barrier
murmur mother
water surrenders
murmur mother
tree roots rise
– Cozette Russell (“Murmur Mother” poem excerpt)

Born 1978, Exeter, New Hampshire
Working in photography, video, installation, and text, Cozette Russell explores ways photographic space can expand into sculptural objects. At the intersection of disability and art, Russell investigates the aesthetics of care and care as access through an embodied approach that uses tactile interventions. Russell’s work has shown at galleries and museums including SFMOMA, the Wexner Center for the Arts, NADA Curated, and A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn, New York where she is a member. Her films are held in permanent collections at The Getty Institute and various universities.