Summary |
“THE BLUE PRINT” by DE RECYCLER explores well-known quilting motifs that African Americans recontextualised during enslavement. |
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Start Date |
June 1, 2024 |
End Date |
July 9, 2024 |
Venue |
Plimsoll Gallery |
Image credit: Image credits: Courtesy of the artist
Please join us for the opening celebration of the exhibition
The Blueprint by DE RECYCLER
Friday 7 June
5:30 - 8:00pm
Plimsoll Gallery
37 Hunter Street, nipaluna / Hobart
Performance by Ebi Florence
Catering supplied by Honey Child Creole
Artist statement.
I am a Black multidisciplinary artist from Nipaluna, Lutruwita (Hobart, Tasmania). Mostly working in textiles and fashion design. My work celebrates my Blackness, cultural resilience, triumph, and serves as a tribute to Black history. My cultural language is displayed through textiles, drawing, sound, text and video works.
The Blueprint illustrates well-known quilting motifs that African Americans recontextualised throughout enslavement to communicate and deliver messages to other Black people working or travelling the Underground Railroads. The secret codes woven in the quilts were easily learnt and were critical for Black people because reading and writing English was intentionally not taught. Everything was devoted to memory, word of mouth, and active adaptation, allowing cautious travel and the hope of freedom.
Through the coherence of blue denim (cotton), I hope to draw parallels between present conceptions of wearing denim in mainstream culture, how Black culture has contributed to that, and the early atrocities that this crop's production caused my people. To thread the weft of your jeans directly to the picking of a cotton ball.
As I traverse racial and social bias, I question the role of modern institutions in the ongoing preservation of capitalist and corrupt systems. I underline that profit has been prioritised over people and examine why and how these structures continue to gain from the mistreatment of Black people.
There is no one unifying style for African American quilts because they are as unique as we are. I weave together diverse strands of history, identity, and expression to connect with the Black diaspora and hope to (re)create a safe space, the studio feel.
The Blueprint is the third instalment of Motion Sensor, a multi-year creative laboratory series of work-in-progress visual art, design, and performance art programs, navigating the complexities of fixed domains. Each year, artists and creative practitioners are invited to present current work in development, experimenting across art forms, revealing to us their practices of code-switching and navigating the complexities of containers that simultaneously hold us but also contain us.
Artist: Noah Johnson
Curators: Jane Barlow, Caine Chennatt and Josh Prouse
GALLERY OPENING HOURS
1 June - 9 July 2024
11am - 4pm, Monday to Saturday
Closed Sundays and public holidays
