Emily Fussner: Some Shining Coil of Wind
MoCA Arlington is pleased to present Some Shining Coil of Wind, a new site-specific installation by Resident Artist Emily Fussner that continues her long-standing exploration of place, resilience, and the ephemeral. Taking its title from a line in the poem Where Does the Temple Begin, Where Does It End? by American poet Mary Oliver, the lyrical installation combines paper pulp sculptures, video, sound, and a floor covering into an architecture of light. Some Shining Coil of Wind invites viewers to slow down and notice the ever-changing nature of the seasons, sunlight, and shadow; peripheral moments that are ever-present, but easily overlooked.
In this work, viewers are enveloped in moments of gentle beauty: sunlight filters through trees and windows, accompanied by whispering wind and surrounding sounds of urban life. Shimmering mylar reflects light from a tree’s shadow traced along the gallery floor. Suspended in the installation are several of Fussner’s paper sculptures cast from asphalt cracks, scattering their shadows across the walls. A tangible representation of fractures that expand and are paved over, the sculptures are an expression of care and mending, an outgrowth of Fussner’s experience living with a brittle bone condition. These castings simultaneously contrast and merge with the projected landscape, a nod to underlying connections between the land and body.
A meditation on presence and light, grounded in mundane moments, Some Shining Coil of Wind is an expression of wonder and hope—a way of looking at the world with arms open.
Emily Fussner is a multidisciplinary artist whose work highlights peripheral patterns in everyday spaces, exploring questions of transience and presence, fragility and strength, perception and care. Fussner has had solo exhibitions at Freight Gallery (Washington, DC, 2026), Arlington Arts Center (Arlington, VA, 2021), IA&A at Hillyer (Washington, DC, 2019), 1920 Gallery and Williams Gallery, Indiana Wesleyan University (Indiana, VA, 2019), and two-person shows at Aughinbaugh Art Gallery, Messiah University (Mechanicsburg, PA, 2026) and Cody Gallery, Marymount University (Arlington, VA, 2022). She created site-specific public art installations for Georgetown Glow (2021) and The Foggy Bottom Outdoor Sculpture Biennial (2018) and has participated in numerous group shows throughout the Washington, DC metro area and beyond. Fussner holds an MFA in Visual Arts from George Mason University (2019), and during that time was awarded a 2018-2019 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Graduate Fellowship, and a summer residency at GlogauAIR through American University’s MFA Studio Berlin in 2019. Enjoying a variety of arts-related work, she managed large-scale artist and collector events for Washington Project for the Arts for six years, occasionally teaches and curates, and regularly freelance designs publications and exhibition catalogs. After growing up in Indonesia, Indiana, and New Zealand, Emily now lives in Northern Virginia.
