Devil’s Slide is a stretch of California coastline that the artist returned to again and again during a period of profound rupture. Its unstable cliffs, shifting terrain, and relentless erosion became both companion and witness.

Seeking solace, Paul returned repeatedly to this coastline—driving the same roads, walking beside the same water, watching fog continually erase and reveal the cliffs. Each visit revealed a coastline subtly altered by time. Gradually, the landscape became more than the backdrop to a period of profound rupture, it became a practice of return and making peace with continual change.

Devil’s Slide reflects these lessons. It is constructed in layers, through the accumulation of fragments of canvas and cloth, decorative trims, mirrors, locally processed salt, and transferred text. The materials carry histories of adornment, domestic labor, and migration. In this work, they are pieced together in a manner that suggests a shifting topography. Individual remnants form strata—some are densely embellished, others are worn, exposed, or nearly bare. Salt crystallizes across the surface and catches the light; mirrored elements flash and disappear as the viewer moves. Fringes unravel. Small fragments of language appear in places, resisting a single, continuous narrative. Empty spaces remain alongside dense accumulations, holding absence as part of the landscape rather than something that must be filled.

Devil’s Slide considers refuge not as permanence or protection from change, but as a relationship to oneself—one that is renewed through return and presence.

This work was begun in residency at the Lucas Artists Program at Montalvo Arts Center. It was partially assembled with the help of Montalvo’s Sewing Group and other friends.

Namita Paul