Nodding Off With Mush Lili Huston-Herterich
When we’re being read to, it’s easy to stop paying attention. Children’s picture books are written to be read in a way that slows, gently, with minimizing syllables and dimming illustrations, to a stop as a child nods off to sleep.
“Mush” is a Cockney slang believed to have Romany origin. It is used as a term of endearment for a close or familiar friend. Sometimes, the closer you get to another person the more difficult it becomes remember the particulars of their face.
Margaret Wise Brown’s 1947 picture book ‘Goodnight Moon’ archives the entire contents of a young bunny boy’s room and cherishes the overwhelming reverence he grants to his inanimate familiars. When he matures into a hare, what type of objects will he award the privilege of speech?
About the Artist
Lili Huston-Herterich was raised in Chicago and lives and works in Toronto. Most recently, she has exhibited the installation ‘The current of the hidden underground stream that passes through our bellies and on to yours’ for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2014 and co-curated ‘Don’t Call it a Breakdown, Call it a Breakthrough!’, a site-specific one day exhibition with collaborator Nadia Belerique. With a background in photography and image making, her studio practice is rooted in everyday forms and their inherent connotations, and often takes a multidisciplinary form. Her installations regard the tendencies of space and how it shapes the movement within it. Huston-Herterich has recently exhibited at Birch Contemporary (Toronto), Gallery 44 (Toronto), Marisa’s Gallery (New York), and OCAD University (Toronto). She will be exhibiting a collaborative exhibition with Nadia Belerique and Laurie Kang at The Power Plant (Toronto) in 2015.
Documented by the artist