The Salon of Inner Beauty

Why make something? Especially now. Humanity is hurtling towards an uncertain future with all sorts of black swans poised to create new wakes in our collective experience. So why make anything? The consumerism has gotten out of hand. The logistical maze of managing the flow of objects is one of late capitalism’s booby traps, and a whole industry around the movement, storage and preservation of art objects has emerged. To see a warehouse stacked with crates of the life’s work of artists known and unknown, begs the question: why make more? Does the culture need any more visual signifiers for future generations? Eventually it all gets buried in one way or another, either in these repositories of stored creativity, on a data server, or in the literal ground over time. Then there arises the question of karma: do you create more karma every time you make something and put it into the world? If so, the work better be good, be clean, and for the upliftment of those who encounter it. It must be intentional, with a bent towards unfolding through process.

Much of what is being made today reflects our self-preoccupation, to the point that even the work commenting on societal narcissism creates a feedback loop on itself, no matter how skilled the execution. The splintering of cultural and aesthetic norms in the last few generations has given rise to all these myriad narratives of personal identity, which is constantly reinforced by the performative pressures of social media. Or the work reflects the dystopianism and mass traumatization that permeates every layer of the contemporary world. Undoubtedly, this is all an evolutionary process, always mirroring the culture at large, which, in its present form, is not looking too bright. But what if you identify as stardust? What if you recognize yourself as pure energy? Or as a mass of photons? What does that self-identification look like when it is manifested as a work of art?

The recent resurgence of transcendental art suggests that audiences are wanting to connect with a deeper and more universal understanding, aspiration, or longing. Perhaps this is an effect of the psychedelic and metaphysical renaissance currently underway. Or it may be a consequence of the loss we have endured over the last few years, as people seek a deeper resonance. This is a heartening development, in that it represents a literal heart opening, wrenching as that process may be. But it is through that portal that compassion blossoms, and that space of inner peace and acceptance can be accessed. Inner beauty is a healed self, an integrated iteration. Like any salon, process is the key to transformation.

The Salon of Inner Beauty is an experiential object and a physical space intended to generate a vibratory healing field. It is constructed using 150,000 acupuncture needles, themselves objects specifically designed for the movement of energy in the body. The piece is installed so that the viewer can experience the piece from inside the form, surrounded by the energy of thousands of tiny healing objects.

My creative exploration has always been about bringing into form the subtler qualities of existence—those feelings and experiences that emerge from intuition, that are just on the edge of ordinary consciousness in those liminal spaces. Trying to understand and visualize how energy flows, moves and manifests has led me to study and experience many different mind/body/consciousness modalities starting in the late 1980s. All these processes intersect in my desire to understand how the energy of things impacts the immediate environment and those who inhabit it. This has led me to investigate the research of Wilhelm Reich and Rupert Sheldrake, both of whom explore the resonance of objects and how that affects the body, mind, and spirit. Traditional Chinese Medicine is rooted in the understanding of how energy moves through the body, and how to manipulate it to bring about wellness. I briefly went to school to learn TCM in 1999-2000, and after gaining a theoretical understanding, I made my first large scale installation using acupuncture needles in 2003. People had deeply felt experiences when interacting with that work. After the impacts of the last several years, both personal and collective, it felt appropriate to make another one of these pieces. My process of making is repetitive and rigorous, much like a meditation practice. All the feelings and thoughts that emerge during the cycle of making are present in the work. I have come to understand that works of art have their own energy and presence and life cycle. To answer my own question: I made this piece again after 20 years because I wanted to make a space for audiences to experience the resonance of an art object intentionally charged with the frequency of healing. Evolving our identities requires the unification of all aspects of the self to truly recognize our inherent creative potential and power, artistically and in life. In doing so, we can enlarge our thinking to see ourselves as much more than our human stories.

Jennifer Joseph

2023