Artwork
Craft
#Africa
#identification
#Nastassja Swift
#portraits
#quilts
#sculpture
#wool
“so I stuffed my nest with flowers out of your backyard” (2023), wool, glass beads, wooden, and foam, 30 x 12 x 12 inches. Pictures by David Hunter Hale. All pictures © Nastassja Swift, shared with permission
From felted wool and quilted cloth, vibrant portraits emerge in sculptures and tapestries by Nastassja Swift (beforehand). Tiny faces coat the bottom of a blossom-like bust or swim across the billowing types of her Sack Sequence, evoking a way of common connectedness. The artist is influenced by household historical past, textile traditions, West African masks, and Yoruba rituals, gathering quite a few tiny visages into compositions that talk to ancestral collectivity, shared experiences, and reminiscences of African diasporic communities.
Tapping into the wealthy heritage of Black quilting traditions, Swift started to make tapestries depicting members of the family, spurred by a mission in 2021 titled Canaan: after I learn your letter, I really feel your voice, which advanced from an change between the artist and her brother, Canaan, who’s presently incarcerated throughout the Virginia Division of Corrections.
Throughout this time, Swift started leaning away from wool towards quilted portraits, however she needed to retain the presence of a sculptural object. “I nonetheless needed them to have dimension, which knowledgeable the choice of the way to show every quilt,” she tells Colossal, deciding to put in the items on hand-made rods by fellow artist Patty Lyons, depicting faces and braid-like tendrils. She attracts from household images of her family, together with a snap of herself as a child within the arms of her aunt, creating a novel, family-centered self-portrait.
Swift has not too long ago returned to utilizing wool, typically including wooden and beads, plus additional explorations into unconventional supplies. These experiments, which incorporate discovered objects like plastic luggage and thrifted hair barrettes, are the beginnings of a mission exploring the historical past and identification of the hood as a garment.
“so I stuffed my nest with flowers out of your backyard” is considered one of two items on view on the Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore by means of September 30. The present, BLACK WOMAN GENIUS, positions the work of the late Elizabeth Talford Scott on the core of a bunch exhibition that includes work by 9 up to date Black girls fiber artists from the Chesapeake space.
Discover extra on Swift’s web site, and comply with updates on Instagram.
Element of “so I stuffed my nest with flowers out of your backyard”
“of a feather” (2023), wool, velvet, leather-based, iron, glass beads, and batting, 40 x 48 x 6 inches
Element of “of a feather”
“For Auntie Rasha (Self Portrait)” (2022), wool, naturally dyed cotton, blended materials, iron, plastic, and tapestry rod fabricated by Patty Lyons, 40 x 30 x 4 inches
Element of “For Auntie Rasha (Self Portrait)”
“we’ve to combat, though we’ve to cry (a quote from the Sonia Sanchez poem, “Morning Track and Night Stroll”)” (2023), wool, velvet, leather-based, wooden, and batting, 30 x 19 x 8.5 inches
“For Granddaddy” (2022), wool, blended materials, glass beads, iron, plastic, and tapestry rod fabricated by Patty Lyons, 48 x 38 x 4 inches
#Africa
#identification
#Nastassja Swift
#portraits
#quilts
#sculpture
#wool
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