Contact - Unus Mundus Project

Synchronizing Art, Travel and Exchange.

Synchronizing Art, Travel and Exchange.

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Have a project idea?

Installation? Exhibition?

Random Question?

Adventure?!

Reach out! Email me at:

chelsea.southard@gmail.com

24 is a giant instrument, with the steel of the ab

24 is a giant instrument, with the steel of the abandoned perlite factory as its sound box.

Each of the metal rods have a sonic tone depending on the length of the steel, the time of the day and the temperature. I welded the metal straight to the building and so when you strum the lines the vibrations are carried through the bones of the abandoned structure, resonating through the steel.

If you put your head between the flanges of the I-beams you get a stereo experience of the sound, if you lay on the concrete it vibrates through your body, if you stand in the center of the building you can hear the building sing!

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#soundart #linework #lineworkart #steel #metalworker #metalworking #artinstallation #artfabrication #largescaleart #sitespecific #sitespecificart #instrument #soundspace #soundinstallation #resonance #bethlehempa #frequency #abandoned #womenartists #femaleartist #buildbig #womenwhoweld #psychonaut #sound #soundsculpture #sculpture #travelingartist #urbexartists #urbex

I am here to create experiences that transform the

I am here to create experiences that transform the way people perceive reality.
This is what I do; both with my art and through my adventures.
To take the everyday phenomena of our world and make it phenomenal.
If you change the way someone looks at a simple line, imagine the possibilities.
When you shift a person's attention to hear more delicate vibrations, consider the significance.
Sharing a story that gives a stranger hope for the world, acknowledge the influence.
Inspiring another to reach further, feel the gravity.

The realization of 24, this large scale site specific work, transformed me. It was so much fun to build and seeing it complete is incredibly rewarding. It has inspired a whole new avenue of artistic work that I can’t wait to continue exploring and sharing with you!

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#linework #largescaleart #sitespecific #sitespecificart #urbexart #metalart #lineworkart #lineart #artistsoninstagram #womenartists #bigart #femaleartist #womenwhoweld #industrialart #geometricart #geometry #time #pennsylvania #bethlehempa #lehighvalley #pa #buildyourempire #womenwelders #artexhibition #artfabrication #fabrication #storytelling

My life is an ebb and flow between art and adventu

My life is an ebb and flow between art and adventure.
Soon I will be shifting hard into adventure mode but before I do I would like to showcase the work I have done these past two years that I am proud of.

From displacement, to injury, to depression, I have battled a lot these past years since the start of the pandemic and the separation from my motorcycle. But as my closest friends so lovingly remind me,
“You accomplished a shit ton in spite of all that Chelsea!”
Thanks guys, love you ❤️

These past few weeks in San Francisco I have been going through those accomplishments, updating my website, editing photos and video of my new work, sketching up a storm of new project ideas and applying for all kinds of exciting opportunities for the coming years.

I have some beautiful photos of 24 to share with you, updates on my postponed exhibition Delta S, some backlogged writings, documentation of the collaboration with my brother @isaacsouthard and some of my smaller works.

Take a trip down memory lane with me before a flood of new adventure pour in.

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#linework #largescaleart #sitespecific #sitespecificart #travelingartist #mystory #womenartists #buildyourempire #dreambig #metalwork #urbexart #metalworking #lineart #lines #geometry #spacetime #urbex #bigart #femaleartist #artistsofinstagram #installationart #installation #artfabrication #womenwhoweld #nomadartist #storytelling

This post is for the newest wonder of our world.

This post is for the newest wonder of our world.
The James Webb Telescope.
The most beautiful instrument I have ever seen, a true masterpiece of science and art.

After a successful launch this past Christmas and a month of ultra high stakes deployments, this past Saturday the telescope and the giant mirror were fully unfurled and functional. A truly spectacular feat of human knowledge, experience, ability and perhaps most importantly, teamwork.

This telescope is a wonder and wonder is important.
I am in awe of its creation. The amount of effort, collaboration and intelligence it took to build such a magnificent instrument is outstanding. It is the most beautiful sculpture ever made that will traverse the galaxies and change the world as we know it.

It is something that will literally look back in time, through the light of our universe over 14 billion years! Just take a second, a minute, an hour… a lifetime to think about that. From 1 million miles away, it will actually be able to collect, process and send information to us that will fundamentally change the way we understand reality. We will be able to see the creation of the first generation of stars and galaxies, gain information that will inform the research into dark matter, black holes, how time works, what space is, gravity, physics, elemental particles… an endless flow of inspiration for us.

We are smothered with so much fear and pain each day from nearly all sources it seems we have almost forgotten what we are capable of as humans, as teammates in space and time.
If you are ridden with anxiety, depressed about our planet, angry at the state of the world… I encourage you to look beyond. Like literally, LOOK BEYOND!

We are part of an unfathomably enormous universe and we are creating these insanely amazing tools to explore it. Yes, I know maybe you aren't a scientist involved in the research but we are all part of this cosmic soup and if you are looking for something that unites us, learn about the fabric of spacetime. Read about the James Webb telescope and blow your mind.

Expand your wonder, it is important.

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#unfoldtheuniverse #jameswebb #jwst #spacetime #wonder

Remember when my feed had more motorcycles on it!?

Remember when my feed had more motorcycles on it!?

Well that’s coming back soon my friends.
As well as moto camping, moto mechanics, Central American jungles, mucho más español, COVID-era border crossings and some real down and dirty adventuring…

…more to come from that mini egg pan hanging off the back of my CRF too. That goes with me back to Guatemala as a new addition to my DR650 travel cookset!
🍳😜✌️
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#mototraveling #mototravel #dr650 #crf250l #centralamerica #rtw #adventurewomen #wildwoman #travelslow #womenwhoride #dualsportwomen #motocamping #advwomen #womenadvriders #solofemaletravel #travellight #adventurer #travelingartist #livetoride #nomadlife #moskomoto @moskomoto @doubletakemirrors @nexxnorthamerica @procycle.us

With the new year comes BIG CHANGES! In about one

With the new year comes BIG CHANGES!
In about one month I will return to my beloved DR650, The Phoenix, that I had to abandon in Guatemala almost two years ago due to covid!
UNBELIEVABLE!!! TWO YEARS!

THIS IS GOING TO BE THE MOST EPIC REUNION OF MY LIFE!
I CANNOT EXPRESS HOW PSYCHED I AM!

The return to my bike and the road, to uncertainty and adventure, the unknown and the known, risk and reward, the beautiful and the perilous…. to my DREAM! To a life I fucking built for myself over a decade and a lifestyle I sculpted from my vision.
Fueled, funded and formed by yours truly.

This month's posts will be a reflection of these two years and a turning towards this change.
How I have been waiting for this!

WHO'S READY FOR ME TO GET BACK TO IT!?
GONNNAAA BE A HELLLLLLL OF A RIDE!

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#dr650 #mototraveler #mototravel #womenwhoride #rtw #moskomoto #adventureawaits #travelingartist #advwomen #womenadvriders #dualsportwomen #getouthere #reunited #covid #perseverance #centralamerica #dualsportadv #doubletakemirrors #procycle #ridetheworld #nomadlife #nomad #wildwoman #solofemaletravel @moskomoto @procycle.us @doubletakemirrors

Many look to the past for wonder, for achievement

Many look to the past for wonder, for achievement and for perspective. People travel across the world to gaze on the Pyramids of Giza marveling at the mystery of how they were constructed.

From the doom of Thwaites glacier, our divided states, a global pandemic, disharmony all across the planet and a growing hold that seems to whisper our inevitable fate, it is hard to see much sometimes except darkness. There is so much that our civilization is caught up in right now that it becomes difficult to be aware of the marvelous things we have done even just in this past year. But they are there. They are not just things of the past.

For me, a new world wonder was born this year. A wonder that will allow us to look back in time 13.8 billion years to the beginning of our universe. The James Webb telescope is such an incredible feat of technology, engineering, and knowledge it is almost hard to phantom all that it took to achieve the launch on December 25th 2021. The discoveries that telescope is capable of will change our reality more than anything that has ever existed. It is a true Christmas miracle.

We are spinning around the sun at 67,000 miles per hour.
The Milky Way is moving through space at 1.3 million miles per hour.
Time is an illusion created by humans' naive perspective of the blurring of reality.
These things in themselves are each wonders that I ponder with each revolution, each trip around the sun, each passing delineation of change.

We are wonders, you and I.
Let’s cherish them a little more this year and be grateful for all the wondrous things we are able to accomplish together on this planet.

Hug your animals.
Love your friends.
Cherish your family.
Kiss your lovers.
Spend time in nature.
Forgive yourself.
All is one.

Happy New Year!

#unusmundusproject
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#physics #madretierra #hope #wonder #perseverance #allone #psychonaut #jameswebb #spacetime

This isn’t the first Christmas my family has bee

This isn’t the first Christmas my family has been separated but it is the first not purely due to logistics or distance. This time the space between us is for something much harder than those things, for something deeper, rooted and raw.

Family is beautiful and family is pain. Two essential parts of the same within this dance of life we undertake. A lifelong rehearsal with no ending performance.

The dance is difficult, one of the most challenging if you are to interpret its moves with the true weight or lightness they manifest.

Within movements, balance between us is fragile and our capacity to hold our pose grows weaker with each moment. Try to give up the choreography, tune in to one another, feel where we grip and where we loosen as to support our postures together with grace and learn to play with the freedom joints allow.

We can forgive ourselves for our missteps, we can forgive others for theirs and with such sweet surrender we allow the next motion to flow through us and give way to our truest dance.

Yet again I have recoiled these past weeks but with intention and for good reason. My family struggles. Some steps are best taken in solitude; wisdom the past two years have given me more than any previous. And so I meditate on these new rhythms having patience for the harmonies emerging.

If nothing else, may this holiday season and closing year be a reminder of the dance we all do and the compassion we must have for one another in that journey.

Merry Christmas to all!
And a Happy New Year!

📸 Photographer: @olaf_studio

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#family #honesty #separation #love #plantmedicine #lineworktattoo #linework #bwphotography #bw

This birthday is for our Mothers. 32 is a signifi

This birthday is for our Mothers.

32 is a significant year for me as it is the age my Mother was when she had me.
I have thought about this a lot this past year and as the day approached I found myself increasingly humbled.
Not only did my Mother have me at this age but she already had my brother. For me, this seems unfathomably daunting and also unbelievably brave.

Mothers have the hardest work of us all. They give themselves completely, body, mind, spirit to a magic far beyond themselves; creating life. Nothing in the world can come close to the selfless sacrifice, gracious gift and intimate love that a Mother embodies.

Which brings me to my Grandmother.

My Grandmother is at the last stage of her life. She has been born and she grew, she struggled and she persevered. Learning to navigate the deep rapids of life and tune her compass to glide through the oceans turmoil. She is a vessel of the most precious type.
One whose sails stretch over time giving her strength to bear the harshest winds and the gentleness to drift upon delicate currents.

Mothers are ships that never come in because they already know there is no greater point of arrival than that which they carried within themselves.
And with no better a substance to hold them.
Water.
That which sustains all life.
And breath that moves them.

I am forever humbled by the grace of my Mothers.
Thank you for having us,
guiding us,
loving us.

I look to the full moon tonight for you my Grandmother, my Mother, my Aunts, my Sisters, Madre Tierra and all who came before us…
And let the brilliance of my love shine to you.

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#plantmedicine

West coast is the best coast and I’m back on it

West coast is the best coast and I’m back on it for a bit! I’ll be in San Francisco till the end of January.

Got a sweet studio to work out of in SOMA and a place in the Mission to stay.

Have some projects and goals but also gonna keep it fun and flexible! Let’s see what happens.

If anyone in the Bay has an interesting project going on or a desire for me to build them something. Hit me up! ✌️

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#travelingartist #sanfrancisco #bayarea #sf #womenwhowander #befree #nomad #femalefabricator #womenwhoweld #goldengate #shoplife #metalworker #moskomoto #mototraveler

I feel if there was one thing I can appreciate abo

I feel if there was one thing I can appreciate about all the artists and designers @artbasel and art week Miami, regardless of the frame their work was put into, or the meaningful or meaningless nature of their content or their questionable execution of technique, what I do admire is the dedication to their passion. It takes true devotion to be a successful, working artist and an incredible amount of time, patience and trust.

Be it scribbles on a page or a perfectly sculpted glasswork, the artists at the events this past weekend make their living off their work and that's more than I and, statistically speaking, over 90% of artists can say. They get to wake up everyday and make what they feel inspired by and get paid for it.

Money should not be lifes focus but what each and every artist at Art Basel has achieved from their hard work and perseverance, aesthetic judgements aside, is something I aspire for myself. And that I can respect.

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#artbasel #womenartists #inspiration #perseverance #devotion #dedication #liveyourdreams #focus #artistsprocess #thelongroad #storytelling #passion #lifelong #commitment #time

So what was it about those pieces I talked about y

So what was it about those pieces I talked about yesterday that I enjoyed so much?
Skill, technique, time.

For a piece of art to be valuable to me it must execute some level of technical skill. No, I do not consider thrown paint on a canvas and scribbled pencil marks skill. Nor do I consider a pile of trash in a gallery with a nice plaque skill either.

For me to admire a piece it should take some time to create and I should be able to see that time reflected. A creative use of a material, a mystery in the design, a clever fabrication technique, a unique bringing together of colors and elements, the philosophy of the piece singing through the execution of the work.

I think out of all the shows I saw @designmiami was my favorite. And it's probably because each piece in that show did demand a level of skill. It was more a furniture show actually and most of which was not made by the artist or designer themselves. Funny how that works out.

This brought up something I think about quite a bit.
Are these artists who aren’t making their own work simply just outsourcing due to demand and time pressure?
Or are they just a designers and do not have the technical skill to make the piece?
Should the designers have credited the fabricators as collaborators who realized their work for them?
What is taken away from the work if the creator can or cannot make the piece?
What distinguishes a designer from an artist and in what ways should I be more or less critical of them?

I have been the fabricator for artists who do not know how to make their own work. And at times it has been astounding how little they are aware or even care about the process. All I can really say definitively about this is that I personally, never want to be this type of artist. Harnessing the skills required for what you wish to bring to the world is an important part of the work for me.

I understand outsourcing fabrication due to demand and I admire and enjoy collaborating with designers who work with fabricators to bring an idea to life.

But I don't know how much I can respect an artist who takes claim on a piece while being unable to explain the process of its creation.

#unusmundusproject

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Who am I?
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