Speaking to Ancestors is an art series in which I create objects, environments, and art installations that encourage white Americans to look within. I want to help us end this need for white fragility and protection.
My jumping off point is my own white colonizer/settler ancestors in the United States.
Since the work starts with genealogy I hope to reach white Americans who descend from colonizers and early settlers, especially. But also anyone who is so fragile that they can’t stand up to the pain that their ancestors caused. I want us to learn to live with that pain, learn to live with being in the wrong. To begin to realize what we have created so we can help dismantle it and stop getting in the way of real change.
White culture is fear
White culture is corporation
Patriarchy and division
The idea for this work came from Conversations on Twitter led by Black Americans. I began reading my maternal grandfather’s books on the family genealogy. I have been talking back to him while reading, but also to some of my other ancestors discovered through his works, most of whom were not anything special in history. They were farmers, soldiers, and yes, cogs, in the machinery that was used in the pre-industrial era to make money off of the land in the soon to become USA.
The Project’s first phase starts with research, a blog of essays, 3-D digital models and sculpture. Initial funding was used to purchase equipment, create 3-D models, and set up the website with blog.
The first phase of this project has been generously funded by the Mass Cultural Council
The planned installations intuitively take the form of a museum exhibit with banners, artifacts, digital screens, explanatory text, and interactive activities. They also include handmade sculpture created from materials natural to the lands of my ancestors. In the first installation of the project, soft sculptures of cogs, gears, blades, and other artifacts of water mills, will be objects to interact it with.
