This video is of an installation I set up and took down in two hours on June 2, 2020. It pays homage to the ancestors who carry us even now. In March, I began sewing on cloth and painting on found wood, things I have been doing for years and even did during a residency in Iceland three years ago. This time, I sewed and painted while intensely breathing with intention. Sometimes I cried for myself, for my people and for people who don’t even look like me including babies who are trying to understand this difficult and historical moment. The resulting 23 pieces and counting, some of them made from found wood, are also a way to pay homage to community and the idea of home. Anthropologist Antoinette Jackson once marveled at the response of one descendant of an enslaved person upon seeing the renovation on a “slave” cabin. Jackson rightly felt anger at the cabin’s existence. It was more than a space of shame. It was a home the descendant knew well. In this series, I am thinking a lot about home, too, and how a sometimes rootless people survive loss. Julie Dash says we are the descendants of people who “chose to survive.” What all does that mean when space and place are concerned? For more on the series, see sharonygreenart.wordpress.com.
