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Mansa 1
2023. reclaimed tablecloth, reclaimed table legs, silkscreened acrylic paint on canvas, steel rods, stretched canvas, constructed wood frame. approx. 3'x7'
The Freedmen's Bureau ledgers shapeshift as the embodied ancestral tribe of Mansa Musa, by virtue of table conversations that cultivate economic justice and empowerment.
The Freedmen's Bureau ledgers shapeshift as the embodied ancestral tribe of Mansa Musa, by virtue of table conversations that cultivate economic justice and empowerment.
Mansa 2
2023. reclaimed tablecloth, reclaimed table legs, silkscreened acrylic paint on canvas, steel rods, stretched canvas, constructed wood frame. approx. 3'x7'
Mansa 3
2023. reclaimed tablecloth, reclaimed table legs, silkscreened acrylic paint on canvas, steel rods, stretched canvas, constructed wood frame. approx. 3'x7'
Tribe of Mansa Musa_Installation
2023. reclaimed tablecloth, reclaimed table legs, silkscreened acrylic paint on canvas, steel rods, stretched canvas, constructed wood frame.
Shield
2022. Reclaimed tablecloth, reclaimed table legs, on stretched canvas. 36"x36" (interior)
Futurist Mural
2020. reclaimed dinner tablecloth montage. 9'x12'
My engagement with reclaimed dinner tablecloths as a creative foreground centers on concepts surrounding their culturally archival, repository and transcendent nature. I’m interested in framing these nostalgic objects as storytelling archives that have absorbed and transmitted memories, histories and experiences as much as latent foodstuff. In my family the object represented a space where dinnertime conversation was equally counted as ‘food caching’, and nutriment for wellness by way of food for the soul: where coded and decoded identity-speak persisted as the true non-perishables. Residual food markings on our family tablecloth recorded open-invitation Sunday Dinnertime banter superimposing that closed rite of passage called ‘The Talk’ (a seeming timeless fortification stretching back to our ancestral dinner tables of the Antebellum South). Our tablecloth preserved a ritual of tribe where pertinent information on how to survive and how to thrive was fastidiously stored, then transmitted again with each spreading of our tablecloth—a portal of rest, safety, nurturing, and togetherness.
Collected from kinfolk known or anonymous, my reclaimed dinner tablecloths intend to perpetually iterate, re-imagine and shape-shift within varying contexts. They stand in as communication drums; As Event Horizons with permanently stored information framing a black eternity; and as speculative computer chips continuing to transmit energy from their storied memories. Each tablecloth is a family portrait…archived legacies that are collectively greater than the sum of its parts. These ideas, as serviced by select multidisciplinary media and making become conduits that toggle between the immediacy of the actual and the possibilities of the speculative…
My engagement with reclaimed dinner tablecloths as a creative foreground centers on concepts surrounding their culturally archival, repository and transcendent nature. I’m interested in framing these nostalgic objects as storytelling archives that have absorbed and transmitted memories, histories and experiences as much as latent foodstuff. In my family the object represented a space where dinnertime conversation was equally counted as ‘food caching’, and nutriment for wellness by way of food for the soul: where coded and decoded identity-speak persisted as the true non-perishables. Residual food markings on our family tablecloth recorded open-invitation Sunday Dinnertime banter superimposing that closed rite of passage called ‘The Talk’ (a seeming timeless fortification stretching back to our ancestral dinner tables of the Antebellum South). Our tablecloth preserved a ritual of tribe where pertinent information on how to survive and how to thrive was fastidiously stored, then transmitted again with each spreading of our tablecloth—a portal of rest, safety, nurturing, and togetherness.
Collected from kinfolk known or anonymous, my reclaimed dinner tablecloths intend to perpetually iterate, re-imagine and shape-shift within varying contexts. They stand in as communication drums; As Event Horizons with permanently stored information framing a black eternity; and as speculative computer chips continuing to transmit energy from their storied memories. Each tablecloth is a family portrait…archived legacies that are collectively greater than the sum of its parts. These ideas, as serviced by select multidisciplinary media and making become conduits that toggle between the immediacy of the actual and the possibilities of the speculative…
"...passed it down to..."
2022. Reclaimed dinner tablecloth, wood, metal, acrylic paint
This series was inspired by the speculative notion of the nostalgic tablecloth juxtaposing the contemporary computer chip. Both are portals where memory, history and information can be stored and extracted.
This series was inspired by the speculative notion of the nostalgic tablecloth juxtaposing the contemporary computer chip. Both are portals where memory, history and information can be stored and extracted.
"...better, stronger, faster. Those are the rules for..."
2021. reclaimed dinner tablecloth, wood, metal, acrylic paint. 60"x48"
This series was inspired by the speculative notion of the nostalgic tablecloth juxtaposing the contemporary computer chip. Both are portals where memory, history and information can be stored and extracted.
This series was inspired by the speculative notion of the nostalgic tablecloth juxtaposing the contemporary computer chip. Both are portals where memory, history and information can be stored and extracted.
"...left it open so everyone could see what..."
2021. reclaimed dinner tablecloth, wood, metal, acrylic paint. 60"x48"
"...don't let the streetlight..."
This series was inspired by the speculative notion of the nostalgic tablecloth juxtaposing the contemporary computer chip. Both are portals where memory, history and information can be stored and extracted.
"...is half black, and I said 'chiiile, please. If...'"
2020. reclaimed dinner tablecloth, wood, metal, acrylic paint. 60"x48"
This series was inspired by the speculative notion of the nostalgic tablecloth juxtaposing the contemporary computer chip. Both are portals where memory, history and information can be stored and extracted.
This series was inspired by the speculative notion of the nostalgic tablecloth juxtaposing the contemporary computer chip. Both are portals where memory, history and information can be stored and extracted.
"...and make sure you're paying attention to..."
2019. reclaimed dinner tablecloth, wood, metal, acrylic paint. 45"x56"
"...just the craziest fucking thing I..."
2019. reclaimed dinner tablecloth, wood, metal, acrylic paint. 48" x 60"
This series was inspired by the speculative notion of the nostalgic tablecloth juxtaposing the contemporary computer chip. Both are portals where memory, history and information can be stored and extracted.
This series was inspired by the speculative notion of the nostalgic tablecloth juxtaposing the contemporary computer chip. Both are portals where memory, history and information can be stored and extracted.
"Veronica! ....When??"
2018. reclaimed dinner tablecloth, wood, metal, acrylic paint. 75"x60"
"...but it doesn't matter. You do it anyway because..."
2018. reclaimed dinner tablecloth, wood, metal, acrylic paint. 45"x56"
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