I remember the shortlived enchantment I felt when I first learned about mood rings. It was shortlived because a more worldly kid (worldly here meaning “has a big sister”) inevitably had to break the news that mood rings tell your temperature and not your actual emotions. No matter though. I found alternate enchantment in the idea that colour could correspond to a bodily state and colour being used to reveal any data- even if it’s obvious- is undeniably a kind of everyday magic. So magical in fact, that it seems to have obscured the underlying premise of the mood ring, which, upon reflection, is something like: without me, your true emotions are ultimately unknowable.
The mood ring assumes you are a great mystery that only it can solve. Taking this claim at face value, I have to think that surely the omniscience of the mood ring doesn’t end with knowing the wearer’s feelings. In You can tell me more, I choose to believe in the mood rings’ supposed power and flatter it with a series of rituals to honour, cleanse, nurture and adorn.
You see, I think I know how I feel, but what do I really know? Mood ring will tell me. And just maybe, if I play my cards right, it could tell me even more.
Music and spoken word samples from chabad.org and steelyvibe on https://www.looperman.com/acapellas?mid=steelyvibe
Thank you to Ivan Jurakic and Sarah Kernohan from the University of Waterloo Art Gallery for the reflective material.
&
Thank you to the Ontario Arts Council for supporting the exhibition of this work