My journey from fiber art to drawing and painting is circular and rooted in gesture. In terms of a conceptual gesture, cotton is poignant. The history of cotton production is problematic to say the least and the tension between that history and my artistic exploration of material and motif is the nexus of my interdisciplinary practice.
I reimagine history, specifically the history of African Americans, our relationship to cotton, and to land and legacy. What if the post Civil War period known as Reconstruction had not been interrupted? What if Special Field Order No. 15 (aka Forty Acres and a Mule) had been widely implemented? Scholars have identified the post Civil Rights period as “Reconstruction 2.0” and our current moment as “Reconstruction 3.0,” thus my practice is timely.
The repetitive dexterity of knitting, as well as a fascination with plant fiber, transitions nicely to process based abstraction wherein painted paper (a fiber) is deconstructed and meticulously sculpted onto canvas. This series is called “Topography” and although the visual link to fiber art is subtle, it is profound.
I utilize drawing, painting, writing, knitting, sculpture, and new media to explore materiality. My visual and literary language is an imaginary realm, a mythical space where time collapses.
The Whisperer, who defies time and space, is the protagonist of this mythology. She is the agrarian, the all-knowing ancestor who personifies memory, the healer.
Art can change the past.
-MBT