Roots & Remains Update

I have a new draft of Roots & Remains, though I don't have the same conviction about this piece being complete as I do with Isaiah's Inventory. I feel that for now it is in a good place. Originally, I intended for this to be an audio piece but I believe that it becomes stronger by combining the image of a landscape near the cemetery where I found Great-Uncle Flemming with an image of the bill of sale showing that Isaiah Jr. purchased Charity Ann and her children with Flemming's signature on it.

I will use the same photo installation as Isaiah's Inventory.

Isaiah's Inventory

Finally, I'm at a point where I feel this piece is complete. I remixed the sound, leaving more space between the reading of the names so that more of the object/animal list is discernible as I mentioned with the last draft. The sound also builds more slowly in intensity, which I believe is more effective at creating an emotional connection with the viewer. 

I also altered the image so that the list fills the entire frame which I also believe makes more of an emotional impact, however comparing the two images, I think including the edge of the book is visually stronger. I will have to think more about whether or not to change the image back to its original cropping. Finally, I tweaked the timing of the dissolve to compliment the timing of the narrative. I sighed with relief when exporting this last draft because for one of the very few times in my life, I knew without a doubt that the work was resolved and with the exception of deciding what to do about the image, I believe I achieved what I set out for. 

I've also been working on the installation. The video will be projected into the negative space of a photo collage containing images of the landscapes of Harris County, county maps, the probate documents I found in the Town Hall, and graves from the Sardis and Prospect AME Church cemeteries. This installation will also be used to project Roots & Remains.

Roots & Remains

Yesterday, I completed the 1st draft of a new audio piece. A question that I've struggled with this semester is how to incorporate my research and artistic process more into the finished work. 

In this piece, I wrote narrative describing my trip to Harris County in search of my ancestral home, Negro Heel, and Isaiah Parker Jr.'s grave. I combined it with a nature recording of my childhood home and recitation of and repeated excerpts from Alice Walker's poem, Turning Madness into Flowers. I'm currently exploring ideas for turning the piece into a video installation and will discuss this further as it develops.

In preparation for my third mentor meeting...

Questions I am asking in general with my work are. . .


Does knowing more about the past give one better insight into the present or who they are?

Does the natural world (in our immediate surroundings) have an impact on who we are culturally and individually?

How does nature and what we consume from it influence us culturally and individually?

What is the importance of documenting the existence and personal stories of my family to me as an artist? Why?

Questions regarding specific works. . .

Water Secrets - How can we connect with the past and our ancestors through our interactions with the landscape? Are we connected with others through sensory cues and stories of particular places? What can our experience with nature tell us about ourselves? 

"A landscape should establish bonds between people. . . art also belongs with landscape studies as I interpret them for it is only when we begin to participate emotionally in a landscape that its uniqueness and beauty are revealed to us." - J. B. Jackson

Papier-mâché forms and transfers - How can the tactile qualities of objects and the narrative qualities of images be combined to document changes in a place over time? Can the work create an emotional connection between the viewer and work while also drawing connections between people and place, the enduring and ephemeral, experience and memory?

Hand photos and shells - The woman in my family show love and devotion to family through their work. Can my elders and ancestors be honored through my labor? Can my work connect me through time or space with them? Can the objects we touch and utilize tell as much about who we are as our stories?

Collard Leaves and Food memories audio - Can food and natural sustenance establish bonds in the same way  that a landscape can? Can what we consume connect us to place? Can it connect us to people? How can we be defined by what we consume? Where is the line between cultural and individual identities in regards to diet and traditions? What is the connection between memory, food, and place?

Inventory - What do our belongings say about the lives we live and our values? How do we determine the value of an object or a person? What can be learned from the way we organize and document our lives or our belongings?

Mentor Meeting Two

Ernesto Neto, The Island Bird, 2012

In preparation for the meeting I had to articulate a few questions about what is on my mind and what is guiding my practice.... 

How do the places we have lived become a part of us?

Does place become a part of our collective memory?

Is it possible to feel a connection to a place you’ve never been to?

What do our surroundings say about us and our private lives?

What role does our sense of touch play in regards to memory, place and identity?

Why is it important to me to know where I came from? Will it help me understand myself better?

What is my role in the line of women in my family?

Ernesto Neto, Humanoids Family, 2001

Ernesto Neto, Humanoids Family, 2001

Artists

Eva Hesse (particularly her lists, sketches and writings)
Ernesto Neto (objects meant to be hugged or spaces to be inhabited)
Lygia Clark (objects for healing)
elin o'Hara slavick (especially her cyanotypes)
Helio Oiticica (particularly his Parangoles performance)


Exhibitions
Explode Every Day: An Inquiry into the Phenomena of Wonder

Lygia Clark, Abyss Mask, 1968

Things to Consider
Be deliberate in setting parameters concerning new sources for library cards. This can be related to location of library, content of cards, etc.

Clarify and be able to defend why I've chosen catalog cards as a material for the leaves.

• The following qualities of these cards connect with my subject matter and interests:
• Cards are a method of documentation
• Way to organize and archive information
• The information displayed on the card inscribed the work with specific meaning
• They are made of paper which carries it own historical context and tactility
• This method of organization signifies outdated modes of relaying information

Clarify and be able to defend specific reasons why I've decided to use collard leaves.

Pay attention to the sculptural qualities of sound. Try combining various recordings.

Take a look at John Dewey's philosophy of knowledge.

Work feels more like a deep investigation of place and marking its changes rather than mourning them. Presentation of evidence without judgement feels significant.

How the work is made almost feels more important that the object itself. Explore how to make the process more a part of the finished work.

Be as specific as possible with narrative and intentions.

The truth as I understand it from the stories that have been passed down to me is more important to my work than their historical accuracy.

On how to proceed when you have a lot of raw material to make sense of....

• Don't be overwhelmed
• Follow all leads
• Don't over-edit
• Don't feel pressured to use everything right away, there may be enough material to work with over a long period of time
• Always take risks

elin o'Hara slavick, After Hiroshima: Two Leaves, 2008

elin o'Hara slavick, After Hiroshima: Hair Comb, 3 views, 2008

Mapping Out the Semester: October

Week One:
Complete papier-mâché landscape forms, sand and gesso
Complete editing photos for transfer and design collages for all 4 forms
Experiment with photo transfer techniques on board
Edit and print photos for quilting
Make corrections to Isaiah's inventory transcription
Re-record corrected inventory
Pour new set of collard molds
Shoot video of inventory drawings
Research for 4th paper

Week Two:
Begin photo transfer onto papier-mâché forms
Complete editing photos for transfer and design collages for all 4 forms
Cut photos and create collaged compositions for quilts
Continue work on inventory drawings
Conduct my own (workspace) inventory, record
Begin casting collards (if molds are dry)
Pour mold for Chattahoochee river
Hand casts based on mom and grandma's photos
Research and write paper

Week Three:
Complete photo transfer onto papier-mâché forms
Sew collaged compositions for quilts
Print inventory photos
Complete inventory drawings
Edit inventory recordings
Continue casting collards
Create Chattahoochee river papier-mâché forms
Continue hand casts based on mom and grandma's photos
Write and proof paper

Week Four:
Paint and texture papier-mâché forms
Continue collaged compositions for quilts
Work on installation for residency
Edit inventory recordings
Continue casting collards
Layer paper strips on Chattahoochee river papier-mâché forms
Continue hand casts based on mom and grandma's photos, research and try new material
Rewrite and complete paper

Mentor Meeting One

Books
Monstrous Intimacies by Christina Sharpe
How to See a Work of Art in Total Darkness by Darby English
Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self by Brian Wallis
The Carolina Rice Kitchen by Karen Hess
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

Artists
Willie Cole (specifically Ironing Board Print series)
Latoya Ruby Fraizer
Janet Cardiff
Marcus Coates (specifically Birdsong)
Simone Leigh
Moana Hatoum
Allora & Calzadilla (specifically Returning a Sound)
Andrea Buttner
Goshka Macuga

Things to Consider
Cooking and the qualities of food
Give yourself permission to be messy, What role could that play?
Shared experience
Trauma
Cookbooks and the idea of a meal
Mapping/Homesteads
Spend time with objects and determine what feels the most meaningful
Bookmaking can be a way to put all the elements together
Consider ways to represent objects other than photography
Research based Practice

Mapping Out the Semester: September

Now that I'm back home and in the studio I need to focus on the process of making quickly. I have a lot of time to make up.

• Continue daily writing and begin drawing exercises

• Begin sketching ideas/collecting installation materials

• Continue recording sounds and start recording new written narrations

• Continue photo work

• Decide where to print photos and which paper/printing process to use

• Experiment with sewing "quilted" photo collages

• Start thinking installation methods for photo

• Brainstorm methods for using the Sunprint cyanotypes I made in Georgia

• Think about how to use grandma's old encyclopedias. (collage, leaf pulp, casting, etc.)

• Pulp and dye 1 batch of paper for casting per week (I wasn't able to procure as many library cards as I had intended, so I should continue looking for a new source in Rhode Island)

• Make molds of new forms

• Cast 1 set of collard leaves per week

• Create at least 2 collages per week 

• Make 4 shell pieces

• Make 2 papier-mache sculptures

Sardis and Prospect

While exploring the back roads of Harris County in the area that would have been known as Negro Heel in 1850, we passed a winding yet unassuming, tree-lined drive. Something called to me from the end of that drive. I asked my husband to back the car up and drive down. I could see a small rocky formation in a clearing at the end of it. In truth, I hoped it could be the ruins of a home or ancient church, but what we found was a cemetery. This cemetery seemed abandoned and partially destroyed. However, the freshly mown grass surrounding it and an empty beer can alerted me to the fact that someone knew it was here.

While looking around, I discovered some familiar names. Isaiah Jr.'s elder brother, Fleming, and his wife, Rebecca. This was a huge discovery. Before the probate records I hadn't paid much attention to Fleming because he was not in my direct line. I'm paying attention now though because after reading the documents we found in the court house, he seemed so much closer to Isaiah. 

In the same year that Isaiah Sr. died, Georgia seceded from the Union. Fleming, who according to his gravestone, enlisted in the Confederate Army was also knee deep in court proceedings concerning his father's estate along with his younger brother. By the end of those proceedings, Isaiah had brought for himself a slave that he fathered 3 children with and intended to live with (illegally) as husband and wife.  I can almost imagine the tension that might have been caused by such an act during that time.

Unfortunately, I could not locate any other blood relations in Sardis cemetery, although I did find Thomas, who married Fleming and Isaiah's sister. There was, however, a large number of unmarked rock graves. Could they contain Isaiah Jr. or his parents?

After leaving Sardis, we headed to Prospect Church. I remember visiting this cemetery with my grandmother as a child. Charity Ann and her eldest daughter, Virginia whom my grandmother is named after and who was the only surviving child Isaiah Jr. purchased in 1861, are buried there. My grandmother told me that because Charity Ann was not white, she and Isaiah could not be buried together. No one in my immediate or extended family knows where he rests.

Looking for Traces: Harris County Court House

Next, we headed to the county court house. A call I made earlier confirmed that the probate court kept marriage and probate records on site. I knew that there were probate proceeding following Isaiah Sr.'s death in 1861 and that there were likely to be some remaining records on file. However, I wasn't really prepared for the amount of records we found or their contents. 

We found numerous documents spread out across a dozen or so books detailing each step of the probate process of Isaiah Sr.'s estate. Isaiah Jr., my 4th great-grandfather, and his elder brother, Fleming, were listed by name in almost every one. Things got really interesting when we discovered a document dated 1829 asking for permission for Isaiah Sr. and his brother William, to sell property in Washington County they had inherited from their father, Cader. This was the first evidence I had ever seen or heard that named ancestors more than 7 generations back.

I also found a document closing out the division and sales of property included in the probate proceedings. It asks that all bills be paid in full with Confederate States Treasury notes by July 6, 1866. By that date the majority of Confederate forces had surrendered but the war wouldn't officially come to an end until President Johnson signed a proclamation a little over a month later.

Until reading this, I never would have considered the possibility of having blood relations that actually lived during this time and accepted the Confederate government as their own. This passage is written in such a matter of fact way, it seems as though at the time that it was written the survival of the Confederate States of America was taken for granted and the possibility that the South might lose the war was somewhat remote.

The more time I spent exploring these books, the more I appreciated their beauty as objects. I was mesmerized by the use of text. The precise penmanship, organization of objects and people into lists, and language of symbolic doodles enhanced their historic value. They became precious objects that I held and manipulated with reverence. Not only for their beauty and fragility, but also for the information they held.

The most fascinating document I came across was an inventory and appraisement of Isaiah Sr.'s estate. A seven-page detailed list of everything he owned that would be up for sale; land, mundane objects, tools, furniture, kitchen utensils, and people, including my 4th-great grandmother and her three children.

Looking for Traces: Harris County Library

Near the end of my first semester, I began referencing narratives concerning my 4th-great-grandmother, Charity Ann with a series of porcelain objects. Last semester, I began depicting those narratives more directly with Ode to Charity Ann. I've been particularly interested with her story because it is a narrative not only rich in oral tradition but, as I have discovered through months of research, also has extensive documentation. Her biography is a complicated one that connects my family with difficult subject matter such as slavery, the Civil War, interracial relationships, migration, poverty, feminism, and social class. 

In following the story of my family through time, from Charity Ann's life to my own, one can see connections between individual and historical narratives in the effects of slavery and its aftermath up through the fall of Jim Crow laws. For example, if you consider the jobs that women have held in each generation in my family there is a pattern that demonstrates changes in opportunities.

Recently, I traveled with my husband to Harris County, the location of the oldest official records that I can find documenting the existence of my ancestors. I recorded my own journey in photographs. 

I had three goals for this trip... 

1.  To pinpoint the location of Negro Heel. This district was listed as my family's home on the 1850 census which was oldest documentation I had uncovered. At some point, the name of the district was changed, making it difficult to determine exactly where inside the 473 sq. mile county my family resided. 

2.  To find a marriage record of Isaiah Sr. and Mahaley who were my slave-owning 5th great grandparents according to the 1850 and 1860 census records. 

3.  To uncover evidence of Mahaley's maiden name and family and/or Isaiah Sr.'s family.

Our first stop was to the Harris County Public Library which kept a county archive room that contained old maps, census records for 1830 and 1840, and a written history of the county. I searched the census records first and found 3 possible leads for Isaiah Sr. and Mahaley's household in the 1840 census. None of these leads are a perfect match: listing only the head of household by name, the use of an initial instead of the full first name, and inconsistencies in the number of children that should be in the household make it difficult to be certain. 

The photocopy of the 1830 census was in terrible condition. I could only find one person with the appropriate last name. The first name and number and ages of children did not seem to match what I was expected, so I doubt it was the family I was looking for. I did find one possible lead for Mahaley's family based on what is likely to be her maiden name, but it is far from the evidence I hoped to uncover.

The one remarkable discovery that we made at the library was to find a list of the 1850 census district names along with the Georgia Militia District numbers that they were changed to in subsequent census records. We used that information along with a older, yet detailed county district map to pinpoint exactly were Negro Heel was located. This map also contained roads and landmarks, such as churches and cemeteries. We didn't know it at the time but those landmark listings would become significant. 

Later on, we took a drive out to the area where Negro Heel would have been. There isn't much there; an old church, a few houses, and a lot of gravel roads through rural land. We stopped at Whitesville Methodist Church, one of the oldest in the county, hoping to find some evidence of my family in the neighboring cemetery. We were unsuccessful in that search.

Reflections: Photography, Part II: Original Images

There are several directions for my original images during the early part of this semester. The first series seeks to explore using photography as a means to reinforce the relationship between woman/man and nature in regards to place, home and its surroundings in particular. These images focus on the details of landscapes surrounding the homes in my family. Although starting with my grandmother's yard, this series also includes my mother's current home. I aim to expand this series to include my own home and those of my aunts.

The second series explores the connection between objects, labor, and identity. Building off of motif of the branching line as a metaphor for lineage, time, and a connection between nature and the body, I have been taking pictures of my mother's and grandmother's hands engaged in activities that they enjoy. I'm also interested in the story that particular images and objects reveal. For example, there is an image depicting my grandmother passing to me a mechanical egg beater that belonged to her mother.

The third series documents the journey to my ancestral home, examining the connection between place, identity, migration, loss and the traces left behind. In the coming days, I'll discuss this more in greater detail. For now I'll just say that these images illustrate my ongoing research into my family heritage and my attempt to answer questions, uncover information, and find my ancestral home.

My final goal for this semester concerning photography will be to consider printing methods and methods of installation to maximize effective storytelling. As I've previously learned, this is a problem that cannot be left unresolved until the end of the semester. I will have thoughtfully consider ways to solve this problem starting now.