It's all yours. Rachel, go ahead.
Good afternoon or good morning to wherever you may be zooming in from
I'm Rachel [unknown].
Rich,
the editorial communications manager for the American craft council.
Part of our editorial team and the coordinator behind the American
craft forum series.
I'm so pleased to welcome you all to the second.
In our American craft forum programs in association with our quarterly
publication.
American craft magazine.
I am speaking to you today from my home in apple valley, Minnesota,
and representing the offices at the American craft council in
Minneapolis.
Which are both located on the traditional ancestral and contemporary
lands of the Dakota energy boy people.
This place carries a complicated and layered history.
In the thousands of years,
the Dakota people have been in relationship and kinship with the land
here and in the several hundred years,
since European settlers colonized the land that the state of Minnesota
now occupies.
The United States land seizure was a project of destruction that
denied the Dakota free and unhindered access to land.
That fundamentally shapes their identity and lives.
We pay tribute to the Dakota and a jib way and invite you to consider
the land on which you live.
And a confluence of legacies that bring you to stand where you are.
Particularly through critical reflection and conversation with your
community.
Fostering conversation and community are at the heart of ACC
submission and American craft serves as one of the most vital
contributions in service to this mission and hopefully to the field of
craft and American culture.
Changes have been coming fast and furious as we all have turned to
meet this moment.
This year American craft magazine will see its 80th anniversary.
And we use that time to reflect on when and where this publication has
been at its best.
Rooted in the present moment, shining a light on the diversity,
resilience, beauty, and impact of American craft and its makers.
In 2021, we embraced the year in four themes.
Nourish flourish, kinship and wonder.
We started the year needing some nourishment.
We continue to reach for opportunities to flourish.
And we look ahead to the communities that we've built and those that
have built us in order to dream big for the future before us.
Before I dive into the program in my introduction,
I just wanted to thank the ACC staff, particularly our editors,
Karen Olson, and Roseanne Perrera.
Our amazing marketing team and our it guru Jason Samuels.
And of course, a big shout out to the Minnesota state arts board.
For their generous support.
A few technical and logistical reminders,
please make sure that your camera is off.
And your audio is muted for the presentations and following
conversation.
We encourage you to participate in the talk would be in the chat
feature and drop any comments or questions there.
Closed captioning is available during this program.
On the bottom of your zoom screen,
you'll see a closed captioning symbol.
Clicking that button and we'll turn this feature on and off.
The program will also be recorded and available for future viewing.
In the summer issue, which is hitting mailboxes right now,
our state of craft feature story explores a concept near and dear to
the heart of our host.
Who I'll introduce in just a minute.
A concept and philosophy that she has coined the craft scape.
As the state of craft writer, Angela [unknown].
And finds out.
This approach to looking at and talking about craft and objects.
Makes an important shift to keep the conversation.
Meaningful holistic and inclusive.
In this program,
we're excited to work with five incredible craftspeople to present
short object stories that demonstrate how this philosophy can deepen
the dialogue.
And now to welcome us into the craft scape.
I am so pleased to introduce the amazing Namita Ghouta.
The Wiggers who I invite to turn on her camera now for a quick
introduction.
No. Meta is many things, including a writer, curator and educator.
Most recently as the founding director of the master's program in
critical craft studies at Warren Wilson college.
Her her students have described her approach to her research and her
curating practice.
As a way of sorting through multiple questions at once and making
connections across cultures and ideas that aren't immediately obvious.
Leading to more questions and opening space.
For others to take the conversation further.
Please join me in welcoming the meta.
Thank you.
Thank you so much,
Rachel and Jason for all the organizational work that has gone into
putting this program together.
And thank you to my students for writing that introduction.
It was written by the graduating students who are graduating in our
second class from the MBA program.
Thank you to,
to the American craft council in particular to Sarah Schultz and
Karen Olson.
And Angela Ross then.
For the tremendous work on articulating the possibilities of thinking
through the idea of a craft escaping.
I am joining you today.
So my parents home.
And the unseated traditional territories of the coast.
Stylish.
Stillaguamish snow.
[Unknown] Stu Ganesh and [unknown] peoples.
Whose ancestors have lived here and cared for these lands and waters
since time immemorial.
I acknowledged this as a first step in honoring the land,
we are on the indigenous communities who are strong and thriving.
Native communities are 0.8% of the population in this place known
today as Seattle.
And I'm beginning this way to honor people's past and present in this
place.
And to recognize my own ancestors and responsibilities on this land
today.
About me just a bit more that I am an immigrant and a
settler.
I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio,
two parents who moved to the U S from Ethiopia.
I am a us citizen and according to the United States government.
Counted in the census as an Asian American and Pacific Islander.
Now, this is a very deceptively simple description of my background,
but it's one that I share because it speaks volumes about the forces
of history.
Culture and society.
Craft is located in this complexity.
And the craft scape as I see it.
Is the space that we all can be in.
That we can all be in a different ways.
And my thinking about craft scape is about opening a space for more
stories.
Four ways of thinking about craft that include art historical framing,
which is the quote unquote training that I have had.
And it has had the space to be more.
Oh, there is no singular story of craft.
And as you listened to the object stories today,
ask yourself which craft is being explored.
Kraft is long and global,
and there are billions and billions of stories about the craft that
are not included.
In the mainstream craft discourse that we have right now.
And there's no scarcity of craft.
When you start understanding that there are billions and billions of
people in the world working through graft right now.
It's a way of moving away from the art versus craft debate.
To be something more than academic training to be something more than
material categories.
A craft scape can bring all of these.
I'm more into view and to create a space to understand economy's
technologies, media ethnography is in concepts.
And here I'm drawing a lot on the work of the anthropologist, Arjun,
a Padre.
And it's a way for us to understand that how we tell stories is as
much part.
Of what is told, who is making and telling.
And where craft materials come from.
Oral histories are an important part of craft.
And that's why storytelling in this particular program.
Is another really important way of reminding ourselves.
That the written word and the spoken word are both equally important
to understanding craft.
Representation is not the end game here.
What we're trying to aim for is about, is about equity.
It's about bringing multiple stories.
And multiple ways of thinking into this idea of a craft scape.
And what you're going to hear today are object stories.
We ask each of the participants to answer three questions.
What is the first object you recall being attached to and why?
What object has left your life.
And you booted back.
Why do you want it back?
And the third question is what do you wish people would say when they
introduce you?
That doesn't get said.
What you are going to see as we go through the program,
we're going to go through all of the, the,
the folks who are sharing their object stories.
And in the chat, you're going to get the formal biography,
which is the professional outward facing bio that all of us use.
And you're going to get that answer to the third question about what
it is that people wish people would say about themselves.
Or ask them.
To to share.
And want you to pay attention to that contrast between what is said
professionally.
And what comes up in those.
More personal responses.
So as we go through, I'm also going to be sharing objects, the,
the responses to those other questions,
as the introduction to the object stories that everybody is telling.
And I've modified them slightly from each person's own words,
but basically I'm sharing you what they have written.
So with that.
I think we are ready to introduce Andreas pan. Is that.
And there's.
I wonder if you would turn on your camera and your
mic.
And you will find Andreas's formal biography and his
answer to that third question in coming up in the chat.
But what I'd like to share with you is,
is the answers to the first two questions.
So for Andreas,
his first motorcross trophy is the first object he recalls being
attached to.
As it holds a memory of an incredible time with his family.
And was something that he shared with his father and loved to do.
It was a victory.
Of the objects in his life.
The one that he is lost and wants back is a black velvet painting of
his father flying through the air on his dirt bike.
Oh, there's describes it as such a glorious object and a strange
convergence of realities.
Art.
Craft lower middle-class family in Mexico.
And such an incredible way to memorialize his now late father.
There's thank you for sharing your object story here with us today.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. [unknown] for inviting me to share my object's story.
Which actually the,
the story that I'm going to be sharing today is an extension of one
that I told.
During the past sec.
CC conference with the meta.
And it is a part of an ongoing, ongoing object.
It's 30 minutes that I have been working on.
That mostly take the shape of Karen's students or constellations of
objects.
Brought together to generate your meanings.
Taking into consideration the breadth and history of the object.
What.
Or who has shaped it?
And also traces the time environment society.
Or communities within it.
Well, considering those are subjective.
Objective.
Millions of value.
All which come together to illustrate almost a moment in time,
a memory or.
And a lot of my ideas about objects.
And what's the reality come from.
My upbringing.
In Mexico, particularly in Mexico with a very creative.
Problem solving.
Lower income family.
And also along with this blurring of ideas or.
Binaries and labels that came from my binational upbringing.
Intertwined with my queer identities.
Sort of these ideas, that one thing can be both things,
two things or more, or neither to be passing, to be something.
Identity politics,
degenerate objects and transnational craft exchanges that can happen
through kitsch to.
Two is logics, but a lot of those are stories.
For another time. So I will go.
Go ahead and share.
My object, which is the Karen. And usually what I tell these stories,
like I construct the Kiran.
But this time I'm going to be taking it apart.
As I run through you with the objects that actually make up this,
this.
Piece with this, this constellation of things.
The first one is a broken piece of.
Which to me kind of is assemblance of a trace of an evolution of a
material in its refinement.
A nervous system stimulant.
Who's composed largely by Colonia Silicon dioxide.
A lot of the objects in this,
Karen have a connection to sell a silica.
Either through its makeup or its evolution.
Through our experiences with this material.
The next one is a shard.
Of glass from a broken iPhone screen.
Chemically strengthened.
Glass from a broken iPhone six.
I was, I'm sitting down today with this object.
And.
Do you have to gas to me?
Tells me actually.
That it wanted to become a stained glass window.
And I told them, well, you are a stained glass window.
You define yourself. You're a shield of protection.
Glass screen.
In a window into the vast digital scape possibility.
Carefully made intimate re navigate it.
It was a touch of an individual's fingertip.
Connecting us through Vance landscapes and realities.
I have to go now.
It wasn't a scone.
I have to take this.
The next is the meter ride from [unknown].
Lego in Argentina.
Travel hundreds of miles to me.
All the way from the window Situs.
4.5 Billion years.
Its material properties are older than most matter.
Earth.
It's been on doors for approximately four to 5,000 years.
The next.
Is a shard fermentation vessel.
I purchased this on eBay.
It came from Ohio.
It has no written or known history that I've known.
When it came to me.
Hundreds of years old.
It traces the history of indigenous communities in pre-Colombian
identities from Latin America.
It's just a shirt.
Broken pottery.
The next is a slice of Petra pie.
Petrified wood.
From the Arizona region.
Ancestral Pueblo lands.
And home to Navajo Hopi.
And Sunni's
is 225 millions years old.
Transformed by Timon, mineral mineralization.
A process that has replaced your organic material with silica and
stone.
It used to have a label.
That told me where it came from.
That is slowly fading away.
If I remove it.
Elicits marker.
That we have placed on it.
That tells us where it's from.
And the last in this collection of objects.
Is it digitally woven tapestry?
Depicting the photograph of the dance floor.
From a gay bar.
From the north and Mexico, it's you? That what is two while we Mexico?
Does it actually happen to be the first.
Gait dance floor you could say, or queer object or space.
Then I stepped foot on it is now a weaving.
Passing us another material is something that it used to be and
continues to be in a different time for different space.
I can also use it.
Thank you.
Thank you so, so much.
Really, really appreciate it.
There are so many things already that I'm hearing that connect with
questions about where someone is from and, and,
and materials and people in history and time and place. And.
Layers. And I hope when we have our conversation,
you'll talk more about the Karen as a form and what that represents.
So thank you so much.
The next person who is going to share a story is Dr. Tiffany moment.
And Tiffany says,
explains that she has always been attracted to objects as a child,
her first collections and Tiffany.
Oh, thank you, Tiffany.
As a child.
Her first collections were coins and baseball cards.
I didn't even like baseball, but I liked the cards she says.
If she had to choose between two sets of objects, she'd go with coins.
She explains that a coin travels.
But we do not know how many places it has ever been.
A point is held by many hands,
but we do not know who any of those people are.
And as I got more into coin collecting and specifically collecting
coins that were much, much older than I was.
I couldn't help,
but wonder about the backstories of the coins that we would never
know.
Tiffany's birthday is October 30th.
And this is significant.
Because when she was born,
the hospital nurses dressed her in a little pumpkin blanket.
When she had her oldest daughter,
her mother gave her that little blanket, pumpkin blanket.
And she has since lost it.
Never get over that.
She says I want it back because it was so special.
I used to wrap my baby dolls in it as a child.
I still can't believe that I lost it.
Thank you, Tiffany, for sharing your object story with us today.
Oh, thank you for inviting me.
This is the object.
Well, this was about a small snippet of a much larger [unknown].
1774 Painting by Thomas leaf titled.
View of Charlestown.
But this object is the most important object on that painting,
in my opinion.
This is the [unknown].
1750 Charles Pinckney Manton.
Charleston, South Carolina.
So everyone here today.
It probably just looks like a house on an old cracked canvas.
It's a three-story with basement tossed.
Double house with exterior brick walls,
marble pilasters and belt courses.
At temple for me seeing the windows I'll get like carved mantle
pieces.
I'm not it wasn't closed behind a high break on iron.
There was the side of numerous parties in Dallas.
But it was home to Eliza Lucas Pinckney.
Thank for her botany experiments and most known for growing indigo in
South Carolina.
I know it was home to men who fought in the revolutionary war on the
comm legislators and governors for a time.
It was even the South Carolina Royal governor's mansion.
It was a decorated with the finest objects that the forced labor of
enslaved people could buy.
And so go.
It is still regarded as one of the finest,
most impressive colonial mansions of Charleston.
Architectural historian still study it on its creation,
but they often leave out one very important piece of the story.
Next slide, please.
When you pull back the layers of this story and must be iMovie on
architectural descriptions of the property.
And beyond the hero worship associated with the American revolution
and Republican womanhood.
You can begin to see why this is my object.
Don clash Williams was the enslaved and later free master builder
behind the construction of this mantra.
I'm 1746. He signed a contract given to him.
But Charles paid me to oversee all of the carpentry and joinery work
for the long side.
As well as to lead, I work.
Crew of enslaved men and one white man.
And that's a signature picture there at the bottom of the screen.
While enslaved,
he dodged death at the harm for the South Carolina slave courts,
which had accused him of attempting to incite an insurrection and flee
to Spanish, Florida.
While enslaved.
He also labored to create wooden indigo vats that aided Eliza.
Pinckney has in slaver and her successful cultivation of indigo.
He was baptized in the Anglican church where his name was tanked from
class to John Williams.
He learned to read and write and possibly attended the Reverend
Alexander gardens school for enslaved people.
Like I mentioned he was the master carpenter behind him.
Carpentry and joinery work on the pink magic.
He did all of this while living away from his enslavers and a home
with his rent paid for by his enslavers Charles speaking.
He married and had four children.
I'm not a seven.
51, Charles people freed him from bondage.
He advertised in the South Carolina does.
Is that for work?
Just two weeks later and that advertisement is pictured here on
screen.
He was given land by Charles Pinckney.
Near the location of the present day Charleston city market to build a
home for himself and his children.
He received a Royal land grant from South Carolina.
Royal governor William Henry Lyttelton for 600 acres on the
Santee river.
As soon as he OD enough money.
He purchased his children.
And freedom from enslavement.
And he accomplished all of this as a black man in South Carolina in
the 18th century.
He has truly honored my nickname for him.
Which is the divine craftsmen and the holy city, holy city bank.
For Tosca, because it is truly such a remarkable story.
I'm the enslaved men who labored with him,
inspires the creation of the black craftspeople digital archive.
Found@blackcraftspeople.org.
Men such as Archer copy.
Charles Krantz Patrick Caesar.
And Peter all listed here on screen.
I also contributed to the mountains, construction,
and also labored as carpenters, joiners, Turners,
and Turners on other properties across South Carolina.
According to the pygmy papers.
Williams and his crew would have been in charge of 1,150 British
pounds worth of carpentry and joinery work.
I'm not was a lot of money.
The cost of the carpentry and joinery work was so expensive because it
was so labor intensive.
Every part of the Wang,
Scott and windows and doors had to be individually constructed and all
decorative woodwork.
Hand carved.
Knowing them on saying their names and giving them recognition.
Is that the heart of what I do?
I tell people all the time that John Williams trolley changed.
My life.
And it makes sense,
strengths that a man who lived and died over 200 years before I was
born silenced.
It's my life, but he did.
He pointed me in the direction of my life's work,
which is documenting black craftspeople and their lives and
experiences.
And he's honestly, part of the reason why I'm here with you all today.
Next slide.
And here's a timeline of the evolution of the pink lantern.
It burned in 1861.
And today the site of the mansion is nothing more than a parking lot.
Although it is gone,
it still remains the object for me because of all of the stories of
black life and black craft experiences that it is able to tell.
This home also reminds me that many of the physical spaces associated
with black craftspeople are gone, but the land is still there.
And we can use that land to tell these stories.
Could not go Reese,
this story and others associated with black craftspeople to the crass
skate.
It was imperative.
We must connect these stories to land and landscapes.
To center the actions and presence of black craftspeople and their
experiences.
So also consider how places associated with black craftspeople are
created.
How they disappear.
Or what better example of that then grows objects my object,
but take me mansion and the black man behind its construction.
John quash Williams.
Thank you,
Tiffany. Thank you so much.
I'm sure that as you're listening, you can hear.
Some of the things that,
that I mentioned before and let her in the article.
And I think Tiffany has brought out this question of presence.
And learning how to tell the stories,
finding ways to tell the stories that are right there. They are there,
even if you can't see the building anymore.
The stories of black craftspeople, our president are here.
And I really appreciate.
So you brought this object in. Thank you so much, Tiffany.
We are going to.
Now hear from [unknown].
[Unknown] and events you.
You could not be with us today.
Andy has shared a video.
So as an introduction to [unknown].
Video, I'm going to share with you.
Some of their stories.
So events you remembers of vinyl, figurine of the Pillsbury Doughboy.
As being the first object that he wanted.
Prevencio explains that he had wanted it for weeks.
But you had to buy Pillsbury products.
Collect the box tops and send them in to get the.
Get the toy.
My mother, he said, they say,
Being a very thrifty Asian immigrant would never do something so
impractical.
But for whatever reasons.
Bought those rolls of instant biscuits and crossbones.
Earning enough Bach.
Stops to send away for the toy.
I carried it.
Down with me always.
Until one day,
my brother and the boys from the Chinese Christian missionary Alliance
church, took him from me and threw him on the roof.
I never saw him again.
And I still wonder if he is up there on the roof of the church.
I think I was so attracted to this thing.
Because it was somehow proof that my mother.
Stern and penny pinching as she was.
Understood.
And saw me.
So with that.
Can we start again? CEO's.
Video.
Hi, everyone. It's a joy to be here today. I'm sorry,
I can't join you in person,
but I'm speaking to you from a recording made on
June 10th, 2021.
I'm speaking to you from Eugene, Oregon.
Which is the traditional Homeland and the Kayapo. Yeah.
Alicia tribe.
My name is [unknown].
Della Perez.
And I am happy to share this object story with you.
I'll go ahead and share my screen now.
This text was written this year.
There's an essay, which I'm happy to share with you.
This object is not my own object,
but when I was very happy to encounter and be able to document.
As part of my, my research and practice.
Between tank Creek and the Hills of Klatt skinny, Oregon,
just south of the Columbia river.
A Zen Buddhist monastery,
Nestles among brambles of Blackberry and tall grass.
Certainly there are things here. One might anticipate.
Stone Buddhas and bamboo swaying in groves.
Nuns and monks with shaved heads like celestial bodies.
Moons held in orbit by the gravity of Val.
Still it is very alien.
I am told that Zen is a religion of practicality.
One cuts carrots for lunch, one sweeps, the steps,
one washes dishes.
One sits quietly and one mens, a garment.
Do these things simply and directly the yoga of caretaking and see
that cutting a carrot is inexorably linked to the mystery of cosmic
events.
Earth soil, rain, sun, the hands of the farmer,
the politics of the land.
This is not metaphor or symbolism. It is embodiment and it is you.
I am told that since ancient times when one decided to leave home and
family for monastic life.
They would shave their head, receive simple bowls for their food.
And so a modest patched robe.
It is striking to see these objects for eating and dressing,
handled with such reverence.
My own cupboards and dressers are crammed with things left,
largely unconsidered, disregarded mugs, clothing unworn for years.
I look into my own cupped hands and see that empty space,
first shape of the bowl.
First shape of longing.
The obsession and the disease are not only the results of consumerism
and late capitalism, not merely condition of modality.
Those developments contribute to be sure.
It is that human life by its nature is dissatisfying.
The first noble truth of the Buddha is after all that life is marked
by suffering and dissatisfaction.
In a way.
It is curious that mundane objects like bowls and cloth of each such
sacrosanct Heights in the monastery.
In another,
it is hard to question the essential role in every practice of daily
life.
Far beyond human memory.
These objects have been witnessed to nearly the entire history of our
species.
How could they not dwell on the dimension of sacred things?
For the monks and nuns, the robe is not a symbol.
It does not point it to an ideology that is expressed or located
elsewhere.
Nor does it act simply as a sign of their vowel?
The road itself is for them.
Liberation.
As I wonder the monastery grounds that come to a place where people
are quietly hand sewing, tiny squares of blue and black fabric.
They're making rock Sioux.
That's like garments worn around the neck,
the smallest type of the Buddhist robe popular in Japanese lineages of
Zen.
The Roxy signifies that it's where has received the Buddhist precepts
dedicating this life to compassion, wisdom and ethical action.
The sewing is done in advance of a ceremony called Jukai a central
gateway ritual through which these initiates will pass.
Making their vowels public.
It is not only monks and nuns who engage this practice,
but also lay people from all walks of life.
The Ratu patches are measured, cut and arranged,
according to an ancient calculus in suitable to the uninitiated.
The colors are taxonomy of relation.
Blue and black for students and novices brownish gold,
where teacher is a brilliant broker raids of prismatic silk for
Abbott's. And you have the most prize fabric for this process.
According to the 13th centuries and master Dogan is waste material.
Thrown away then found a serendipitously and repurposed.
The Buddha suggested that his followers were robes of patched cloth
resembling the step to terraces of rice patties.
Those patches were often made from discarded and soiled cotton used to
wrap the dead.
The new initiatives tell stories of their own fabrics given by loved
ones, blessed by the Dalai Lama,
found at a bus stop purchased at a store, saved from a wedding.
Textile production to be described as the vernacular of bringing
disparate things together.
And this process of rogue sewing is no different.
Yet this particular process of sewing also emphasizes an inverse
truth, the original interconnectedness of the nomina,
each story to piece of cloth cut in a vast web of interrelation,
personal political, and social.
Originating in Northern India.
This method of sewing was transmitted largely by oral tradition,
across all corners of Asia and upon the turbulent Pacific to the north
America, to Oregon and beyond.
Each lab touched by this process added its own ethnographic,
textile traditions, dyes,
and fibers changed with regional availability,
size and thickness adjusted the climate.
Practical for sure.
The process of sewing is itself challenging enough painstaking even.
It requires a monumental attention to detail.
Flabbergasting to one who may never have sewn by hand before,
and perhaps never will. Again.
You just ditch rises and falls in the tideless sea of cloth.
Following breath.
These softwares are not skilled, but amateurs in a real sense.
Committed because of love.
So their luminous silk stitches are sometimes cattywampus,
meandering step-by-step. So it is in life.
And they'll not perfect. Each robe is alive with idiosyncrasy.
Some Sowers mouth, these words as they work, not Mooky.
[Unknown] I take refuge in the Buddha.
A Buddhist scripture is known as a Sutra and that word in Sanskrit is
the same.
For the word thread.
Before I leave the monastery. I walk with a young [unknown].
Hillside for us to populated with statues of Jizo.
A spiritual warrior who protects children and those in transition.
The nun wears a rock suit around her neck.
It's old, despite her age,
threadbare and marred and faded in places from repeated touching and
frustrations on the ground.
She walks with the Palm of her hand,
face down touching the tips of firms as she passes.
She had just her rock Sioux often. And at first it seems like a tick,
like fidgeting.
But watching more closely,
I realized that her gestures are acts of continual reorientation.
Of aligning one's body to one's deep intention.
It is the dance of paying close attention.
Is it difficult to give such sincere focus to every little thing you
encounter? I ask.
She laughs musically.
Well, yes, of course it is.
But that is the weight of freedom.
Thank you so much.
I'm hoping that eventually I will see this and, and hear the thanks.
Evencio,
there are a couple of things in particular that caught my attention
that I hope will come up in our conversation.
The interconnectedness of phenomena.
And the Alliance.
Body.
To attention.
And also the idea that the robot itself is not a symbol that points
elsewhere, but the robot itself as liberation.
Thank you so much.
Courtney.
We are going to move to your story next.
And if I could invite you to turn your video and your.
Audio on.
Courtney Leonard.
Shared that the first object she recalls being a text to was a
spoon rage from her great grandmother blanche. LeeSar Carl.
And I have to tell you that my grandmother sold.
Or my there's a connection here. I won't give it away.
There's a connection here that really spoke to me today in a,
in a way I'll share a bit at the very end.
Courtney used to ride to her great-grandmother's house from where.
And, and when she arrived, she was always greeted with a hug.
From her favorite chair in the living room.
And next to it was a bowl of odd things that were acquired from her
life.
And pennies.
A penny for her thought.
This is what Courtney was imagining.
And Courtney describes how she told her on one particular afternoon to
pick something up from the bowl.
And I chose the silver spoon ring.
It's arms wrapped around my finger, much like her hugs did.
With warmth and security.
I wore it often as it reminded me of her comfort and gesture of
giving.
Of gifting, gifting, time, knowledge, joy, safety.
I was lucky enough.
It's to have lived.
With the presence of my great-grandmother through 18 years of my life
until her physical passing.
She passed away before I headed off to college.
And I was determined to wear the ring for every day of her life.
Over 80 years.
That time expanded beyond those days.
And I had found myself unable to take it off.
Still missing her.
Still morning.
During the spring semester of my first year of college.
Courtney says she woke from a dream.
Where her great grandmother had visited her before her passing.
There was a bit of extended family turmoil. And because of this,
she wasn't able to visit her as she would have.
I regretted that says Courtney and in my dream,
she told me it was okay.
That she was okay. And not to worry.
When I woke up,
Courtney says the spoon ring was on the floor of my dorm and all my
stubbornness and unwillingness to listen or let go.
I still put it back on and wore it until eventually the heat of my
body and the bending of the metal into those tight hubs.
I longed for gateway.
And the ring broke in half years later.
When I picked up the pieces I saw it's maker's mark.
A stamp.
At red.
Avon.
I laughed a bit,
as I always thought it was an antique from one of her yard sailing
days out on the east end of long island.
But realized its provenance before that afternoon with her.
And our relationship was the only record I ever needed.
I still recall her smile and her laugh and have since kept the
remnants of that spoon ring.
And a treasure box.
My grandmother sold Avon and we had a house full of all of that
jewelry and the cologne bottles and all kinds of things. And.
Courtney, your object story,
brought back a very personal memory about my grandmother,
trying to find a way to find agency through settling these objects.
So thank you for that.
Courtney is going to share her object story through a video.
And so if we're ready,
Are you ready for us to go ahead to your video, Courtney?
Yes. Thank you very much.
Well, thank you.
My name is Courtney Michelle.
And I'm from Shinnecock nation.
And this is my object story.
The object I'd like to share with you today.
It's actually on.
My dad.
It's a supermodel tooth that was gifted to me.
By an artist.
Bookoo artists, clay.
Mahnaz Nathan.
From algebra.
And it was gifted to me the first night that I arrived in out Deora as
a part of an indigenous artist exchange.
In relationship to mottoes.
Being from a community who are caretakers.
Sperm whales.
And his knowledge and understanding of knowing.
My relationship and my nation's relationship to the way out.
In particular, the sperm whale.
Off of our shores.
And a part of that relationship is a conversation.
In terms of material accessibility.
And cultural viability our community.
Is facing a lot of different issues in terms of environmental
sustainability.
And.
Notions of futurism as a relationship.
As a relation to our food sovereignty.
And that is ultimately what I explore my work.
But to get back to the object itself.
Our community no longer hunts whales.
However we did one whale would feed us through winter.
Your harsh times.
And through the imposition of the us government in relationship to our
community.
We no longer have the ability to practice that.
And thinking about the craft skate.
Aye.
Was reminded of a quote that I read while studying.
Anthropology from an anthropologist at the turn of the century name.
Carl Sauer who coined the term, the cultural landscape.
And the cultural landscape.
Being that where the landscape itself is
shaped by the culture and the culture is shaped with the landscape.
And I understood that in relationship to who I am as a Chicago person,
because Shinnecock in our language translates to people at the level
land.
For people at the shore.
And in thinking about.
The object itself and that of this Burnwell tool.
I feel that that has a strong relationship to the question that I
pursue in my practice,
which is can a culture sustain itself when it no longer has access to
the environment that fashions that culture.
Can we exist?
In the c**k people, if we don't have the territory.
If it's covered by water.
These were conversations that I had with mano and.
And so this gift that he gave me the ability to wear as well too.
On my body.
And honor and recognition.
Of our relations and protections.
Out of the whale.
Was really something.
That I don't have enough time to fully share the experience and the
honor.
But it was so.
Important to me that.
At that time, many people ask me.
Do I want to carve the twos or have somebody carve the teams?
And when you think about the act of carving or the process of working
with the material.
I would probably say that would be in that definition of craft.
Is that you're crafting something that there is some sort of
engagement or manipulation to the surface.
Some sort of interaction between.
The human body and the object and nor the material.
But in a cultural relationship sometimes.
The material that you are honored to have.
Does not necessarily have a story.
That you get? No.
What.
Should be carved upon it.
And so, although this was gifted to me in 2014, my mom knows.
And it was bound by food who was there at the
time.
I didn't know what it story was and I still don't know what its story
is.
And so I have never taken it off.
I've always held it close to my heart and my body.
And.
The act of an object story was one that I wanted to share in the fact
that maybe some objects.
Fold more of a story in a relation.
Then we understand fully.
And that not everything needs to be.
Presented and completed in its entirety in one moment.
But that the object itself, the idea of a craft scape.
Can be something.
That holds energy and relation.
History.
But not without connection to responsibility in place.
People and notions of gifting.
And understanding.
So I share this with you.
And a little bit of insight too.
Also who I am as an artist.
And the objects that I create.
Often in a shift of scale.
This is a spermicide tooth that I fashioned out of clay.
Material that I do have access to.
But also has no.
Carving.
Or surface.
Aside from the fact of its presence.
And the conversation of the material itself,
that the actual tweets.
Or that of the material that I do have access to.
And I have more to share, but I look forward to our discussion and.
Thank you so much for, for having me as a
part
of this.
Thank you so much, Courtney.
I see some really wonderful ways that,
that we can have some conversation about this question of presence
and, and when a story shows itself.
Not just in terms of materials,
but in terms of history and those cultural connections.
I can see some, some relationships there to, to, to, to,
for us to tease out with.
Andreas and Tiffany's presentations in particular.
Thank you so very much.
And the idea of the Crossgate being a place to hold energy is
something that I hope we can come back to as well.
Thank you so much. We are going to here.
Our last object story from Amy Maya's there. And Amy,
if you would turn your.
Camera on.
That would be great.
And I just want to share with you that Amy is graduating from the ma
in critical craft studies. This August.
And I'm very, very excited to have,
have you here as one of our students,
but also because of the kind of storyteller you are.
And Don, I'm going to share your story that you shared with me.
About objects that in your past and.
Amy says that she recalls loving.
A brown haired, stuffed bear with a swiveling head and limbs.
And at her very first sleep over its head,
pop off during your brutal tug of war.
Her mother whip, stitch the head back on.
But it wouldn't turn side to side anymore because she'd sewn it
directly to the body.
A few years later when Amy was about 11,
she repaired the bear by properly attaching the head to the black
plastic swivel mechanism inside.
Amy explains that she became convinced.
I knew more about sewing than my mother.
Then not understanding the value.
Of speedy repair under pressure until I had my own children.
The object that has left Amy's life that she wants back is the wide
silver ring. She brought a bot in Krakow, Poland.
In 1996.
It featured a whiskey colored, Amber marble.
Amy loved its weight and size imagining it would break a tooth.
If I ever had to punch a stalker.
A few years later.
It was stolen.
Amy says I wanted back because someone else wanted it
more.
Wanted it enough to steal it. And this makes me want it even more.
Amy. I'm going to turn it over to you for your object story.
Thanks.
Want me to wait for Jason to get my slide up.
Great.
So thank you Naomi, to, for the introduction,
they were really fun to write and think about those questions.
I'm honored to share this narrative.
From my home.
On the nine, a Homeland.
In a place that's now called Anchorage.
This object, especially since I'm circling this.
For many years now has shaped my own practice.
The family grief begins 30 years ago.
When my mother's two cousins in Sweden.
Were killed in a car accident.
The young men, not much older than I was at the time.
We received scraps of this news in America,
translating and piecing together details of a story.
That even now has many holes.
What did feel intact was the sadness that traveled thousands of miles.
The craft act that processed the state of brokenness began later.
When my great aunt cut her two sons clothing.
And to strips and wove the cloth into rugs.
Before she died.
I inherited one made from work shirts and soft denim.
The fray of her scissors,
imperceptible against the fray of life's ware.
I can't ask now about her decision to weave these objects.
The physicality of the act.
Her intuition.
The embodiment of grief through a hand making practice.
She already knew well,
But I've envisioned her shuttling memories and remnants of two lives
across the work.
We're repeating this for years.
As evidenced by the number of rugs,
she either prepared material for or completed.
But even if she were still alive,
it would be difficult to ask about this.
Family. Yes.
But divided by language generations, distance,
and two countries.
And culture's worth of what is appropriate conversation.
I can guess she would express this was a way of healing.
Though, of course the sadness remained.
I can guess the work was meditative.
Morning,
rendered into a craft process that lived in her body as her children
once had.
I do know the making was rooted in care and I believe it created
a space.
For grief to expand.
Thrash into every recess and exist as its own threadbare
being.
Next slide, please.
As an artist who works with old cloth,
I'm drawn to narrative embedded in domestic craft objects made by
women for the home.
Where they're practical. Beautiful. Both or neither.
These textiles have always been more than decoration.
They are reminders of emotional labor.
Material limitation.
And the inevitability of repair due to use and time.
This rug was handed to me as an object heavy with motherhood.
Care and longterm keeping of materials.
A reassembling of a self after loss.
But its current state of brokenness reflects a dark phase of my own
motherhood.
And continuation of narrative.
Those warp threads snapped while I weirdly stumbled with an
inconsolable infant more than a decade ago.
I wouldn't realize that my heart is zigzag at the sewing machine
during a rare nap time.
Was a failed repair until I pulled the rug from the wash.
Months later and was met with a flail of unraveled denim and
plaid.
What this 0.2 years on and contemplating the dynamics of a
repair, that's still hasn't happened.
Is that I hadn't fully considered the rugs vulnerability.
I'd placed myself.
As caregiver and longterm tender.
In a position of power.
My quote repair.
Had built in the next point of failure.
Next slide, please.
Feminist scholars.
Joan Tronto and Berenice Fisher define care as quote.
Everything that we do to maintain,
continue and repair our world so that we can live in it as well as
possible.
That world includes our bodies, ourselves and our environment,
all of which we seek to interweave in a complex.
Life sustaining web and quote.
Toronto outlines five phases of care.
All of which can be applied to repair.
These include attentiveness.
Responsibility.
Competence.
Responsiveness.
As well as trust or respect.
Contemplating this broken rug for years now.
My approach to repair.
Proposes another phase of care.
Accompaniment.
The caring for a vulnerable object through to its transition.
Whether this is it's repair, reuse, reconfiguration,
or decay.
The craft scape is filled with these vulnerable objects and materials.
Approaching their repair from a position of accompaniment incorporates
an ethic of care.
Which assumes reciprocity between the mender and mended.
To accompany is to travel parallel.
Sometimes guiding sometimes following,
but still caring for and repairing one another.
Literally or emotionally.
Brokenness implies vulnerability.
And we can either see this as a weakness that results in discarding.
Or understand it as a need for care.
Considering the ladder.
A course of care for the vulnerable.
Reorients the position of looking down at a broken thing to
one that sits beside it.
Instead of deliberating over next burdensome or inconvenient steps.
We can shift our approach to a position of care and accompaniment to
the object in need.
This stance tends to evolving relationships.
We are all vulnerable and everyone is both recipient and provider of
care at some point, no matter how able-bodied.
This reciprocity evolves with ability and time.
Applying an ethics of care to relations with humans and world shapes
our considerations and responses while exposing power structures
operating under the guise of care.
We can apply this to our relationship with vulnerable objects as an
approach to the craft of repair.
Last slide, please.
During a recent inspection.
Through the Lewis, warp and weft.
I found a strip of denim swiped with a red paint.
Perhaps a cousin's absent-minded gesture during everyday farm task.
Buried deep within an object decades on.
The rugs, impending repair, while in my care.
Has the potential to take on that dual role of object care and
emotional repair. Once again.
The marks of my hand, combined with my families.
My cousins.
My great aunts.
Is a tender, but powerful, ongoing as to look forward to.
Part history part map.
It's a journey that follows the disruption of the everyday.
From despair to healing to use.
To breakage.
To disappointment to repair then re repair.
And the potential for a return.
Two in every day, again.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Amy.
I really appreciate,
I I've heard stories about this rug and know a number of ways,
and I think what's so powerful.
Is the way that each time you've told stories about it,
there's different aspects about it that come out, which I.
I really appreciate it. Thank you for sharing in a different,
different way of thinking about the.
The object.
I'm particularly interested in touching on this question about the
dynamics of repair.
That you mentioned and his need for accompaniment of
vulnerable objects.
I think this question of accompaniment comes up again and again,
through everybody's presentations.
Could I invite everybody.
Courtney and Tiffany and Andreas,
could you join us back? And we can have some conversation.
We've got a good amount of time for discussion. So I'm hoping that.
I'm hoping that there's some questions that came up for all of you,
as we were speaking or connections that you were hearing that you
might want to talk about, but just to start us off.
I think,
I think Amy's story brings something to my mind that I heard in all of
the object stories.
And trying to understand.
What do we do?
With objects.
That have lost the story teller.
Or have no longer have that, that thing connected to it.
That puts it in a context.
And.
What does that do in terms of creating a craft scape?
And I think that this is something that comes out in each of your
stories in a different way, this question of what the object conveys.
Without you.
Being present and what the object conveys when you are present.
And I wonder if we might touch on that.
A little bit in how it connects to craft and anyone can just jump
in
.
Well, you don't want me to, I think for me a lot of times when,
when I'm thinking about objects and it was something that I touched a
little bit.
Upon at the brief intro is kind of thinking of
those kind of like D subjective and objective qualities.
Within an object.
And what stories are told by its sheer materiality and precedence,
and what stories are told by the presence of another individual.
So I think there's always, to me, an object is always telling a story.
It's always just telling different stories to different people and.
Some of, and, and all stories.
And it's another one of these things like.
All stories are valuable to what the object is telling someone.
So I think, I think a lot about that.
And I think a lot about who's hearing,
who's listening to these stories.
So who's looking for these stories and you'll find different stories
in different objects, depending on who you are, where you are.
Where you've been, what the object is to me,
I've always found that interesting. And a lot of times,
Like when I was telling this story of this object.
Kind of sprinkle all these kind of different relations to deep time
too.
Ancestral lands to geology and kind of trying to expand.
And that, which to me relates a lot to some of the ideas.
In the crops.
Scape and the cross spaces and kind of all these relations to like
financial scapes or digital escapes or.
Kind of environmental scapes and all these things.
Anybody else have a thought about, about that?
Probably it's an interesting question for me,
because most of the objects that I work with.
The storytellers are, are long gone,
or we never knew exactly who the storyteller was. We just knew that,
you know, it was, you know,
Possibly made by.
Enslaved person.
But that question did resonate with me because one of the things that
I try to do is to tell those stories,
to piece them back together through whatever primary source.
Documentation or records.
That I can find, because I think that's important, right? That we,
that we continue to find ways to share those stories.
And tell them, and.
Honor.
The makers behind those contracts.
Totally totally.
It makes me think about Tiffany,
just what you just shared and what you shared on this.
It makes me think about.
The way in which Amy's the rug, Amy,
if that rug was located someplace else,
If it had not come to you.
Through the way that it came to you and you saw it somewhere.
Let's say, you know,
a yard sale and a state sale or something like that.
There would be no connection to that. They're there.
The way you described that it was heavy with motherhood and care.
It wouldn't be as visible.
And, and it made me think in some ways about the way Courtney that you
talked about.
The object.
Not showing itself yet.
You know, it's not, it's the way that the, the.
The marks are not always.
As, as they have to come in their time, that kind of thing.
So there's a temporal thing going on here too.
That it made me think about with both of yours.
I don't know if that connects with you all in any way.
I.
Want to say some things, but I don't want to come across as.
An odd person too much.
I it's hard for me to.
Distinguished language and separate modes.
So I do consider myself someone who has been
referred to as a materialist,
but I think it's in relationship to my responsibility,
to material in place and community and relation. And I think that.
The idea of any object.
Because there's that I'm also a word person. So an object.
And be as any physical entity.
Now within the craft scape.
There is an extended relationship between the human and the idea of
making with that material.
Four.
At least I'll just say from my personal perspective,
how I was raised as a one person from my community.
That.
That material comes from a place.
However it's fashioned as in communication of that place with relation
to the people of that place. And then.
Taking that.
And having it live with the people is what affords that continuity of
relation and story.
So to a certain degree, depending on what the object is.
That story may not continue in the same fashion without the people.
But.
At the same rate and thinking about.
The material of a place and the energy of a place and the people in
relation to that place. If the object holds energy,
Can the object speak for itself?
Can we have things that then at some point in time,
because I also have a museum studies degree and there's this fine.
Component to my practice where I do work in collections.
And,
but I work it in with a fine grain of salt as an indigenous person,
because there are things in collections that should not be there.
That are sacred.
And you can walk into a space.
And the registrar will ask you, oh,
send me a list of objects you want to see? And I'm like,
I don't work that way.
It just, I'm a, diviner just put me in the space.
Let me see what leads me.
So in that regard,
The objects can call and speak to you.
And then you begin a new relation.
Now it may not be verbatim based on whatever that history is because
it's through the eye of the beholder.
But that continuation of energy continues. And I,
and I think that that was something that I was trying to start off
with a fine grain of salt, because are you a believer?
That objects are more than a physical object that objects
potentially have energy. Have soul.
Have ability to relate beyond your need
or your ego. And I think that that is, is something to,
to be mindful of. We're not the beholders of everyone's story.
We're just honored to be a part of this journey.
With those objects.
Totally love Courtney.
If I could just jump in really quick, what you just said about.
Objects living with the people, because I think it,
it speaks to a facet of longterm keeping.
And.
Whether that's objects or long-term keeping of materials.
And, and what that means.
With regards to.
Place and.
I work primarily with textiles. And so a lot of.
A lot of the work comes from the place of the home.
And so understanding the amount of labor that has gone
into.
Some of these objects, whether they're a crocheted or sewn or,
you know, made by hand versus made by machine, you can see.
The things that are made from clothing, for example, you know,
I was thinking a lot about, yeah,
what if I had run across this rug at a yard sale,
I would still see the denim. I would still see the plaid.
I would still see the.
You know,
The various fabrics that have gone into it and have an awareness that
there had lived another life.
And so to receive these objects.
One way or another, there is this sense that.
There's this anonymity in terms of the maker.
I have no idea who makes a lot of the crocheted items, for example,
that come my way, because those names aren't on there.
But I know, I know the amount of time that it took.
To put into it and you don't approach.
Making act.
That is him.
Heavy with skill and heavy with labor.
With, with no care, you know, there's always that,
that sense of care that is infused,
which creates that energy that Courtney was just talking about. And,
and I also think that there is.
This sense of dormancy.
That that objects.
Can become dormant and.
And perhaps even wait right. For.
For the next person to come along and pick up that narrative thread.
And we can guess. I mean, I have,
I know the story of this rug pretty well, but there are still.
Many holes right. In, in that story itself, I have no idea of.
Of really, truly understanding everything. And you never can,
but you can pick up the thread and the narrative.
Becomes your own or your communities or your families.
And I think that's what's so.
What's so exciting and interesting about this expansive way of
thinking through craft.
Tiffany, did you have something?
I saw you.
Writing. I didn't know if you maybe wanted to jump in.
Oh, it's so much.
It was said,
that was the sort of making me think about things that I didn't want
to forget.
I was really drawn to that point about Optronics holding energy,
and then thinking about.
The meta, you mentioned the craft scape, holding energy.
And for me thinking about ways in which the landscape.
Holds energy and, and.
And also thinking about the ways of,
of what Courtney mentioned when objects.
And I was just sort of sitting here thinking about how every time I
visit Charleston,
I always find myself at that they get at that parking lot that I
showed you off.
Where that house used to be, but yeah,
I'm just really attracted to that idea of.
Of the landscape, holding energy and drawing us in.
Giving us the resources to tell its story.
So.
Some of you touched on this a little bit, but.
I'm interested in.
If there's anything else that you wanted to share about why you chose
this particular object or the Karen of objects,
the stack of objects.
Is there anything else that you were thinking about,
about why you chose this?
To unpack the idea of.
A cracked scape as opposed to craft.
And what you see the difference between that?
Or is there a difference maybe there isn't a difference for you?
Maybe we can start with the Karen.
Like why a Karen.
Okay.
Y Y R Karen, I think.
I think, well, I love times the reasons why I like occurrence.
And I think I've talked to you about this to me, that Karen.
A totem or kind of like a, an object or a placeholder.
I liked the idea of occurrence.
Because it is something that's created by someone.
As a way of, of, of.
Of telling another individual where they are.
And in place of at least within kind of like popular culture,
I hike a lot.
And I, I, which is why I like the natural escapes and stuff like that.
And in hiking,
a lot of times the Kern is this placeholder of like where you are in a
path.
That has been created by another person. Of course, they also,
there's also kind of.
Sometimes.
The destruction of the landscape because of Kerns,
could people kind of like doing them decorate live decoratively.
And, and to me, that's also an interesting thing in terms of like,
thinking of like a location or a path and that fragments into
something else.
So that, that for me, that.
That was one of the reasons why I picked that object, because for me,
it's kind of almost like a curd,
which I associate a lot also to like a constellation where we can
project meaning onto objects in the sky.
And, and, and it's, it is to me, kind of like.
This reflection of a network of connections.
With this one,
it was all a reflection of connections to some sort of earthly silica
material.
That could have been found in the concrete.
Dance floor in the country.
Five word in.
Piece of gorilla glass or the meter, right.
Or the on roll Frackman piece. So,
so it's, it's a way of me kind of, of, of.
Of nuance kind of like.
Now Redondo to nuance and then kind of like exploding the set of
relations.
Of how that extends into, into the self, into the community,
into, as a larger society or a history.
A history that's been raised capitalism.
So it's kind of these kind of like wide nets that I construct with
these.
Well, I guess I'm wondering too.
Thinking about this because we framed this program as objects or the
council asked to frame it as objects from the craft scape.
So starting with this idea of craft scape and this, this.
As us as a space.
I'm curious.
If anyone has any more thoughts about that?
The idea of speaking about this, about craft in this way.
What does it do for you?
In terms of telling stories, does it open a space to tell a story?
Differently.
Then we find, we tell stories in the crest arena,
and I'm thinking about crash Serena in terms of museums and,
and history books and theory books.
And if it does, does it leave enough room?
For your specificity.
To make it multiple stories or not.
And, and this is totally a leading question.
But I'm trying to figure out if this thing that I've been wrestling
with and using as a way.
To, to frame my own work, to frame my,
how I'm structured this program, how I curated.
No. Does it open up a space for other people or is there something in
there and I'd love to hear if there's something in there that you were
like, yeah, I didn't, I would've wanted it to,
I would want this to so.
You know, let's, let's wrestle with that for a few minutes.
So I'll just say that I appreciated the invitation to
be a part of this and to dig deeper.
Read through the crap scape and understand the approach to coining
this language and the history of the work that's been put into it.
The reason why is because.
I knew that I wanted to enter into the field of ceramics.
And work with the clay.
Right from high school.
And I'm 41 as of yesterday.
And I look back at my time within craft
and I have not found it.
In its entirety to be completely welcoming of who I am.
And where I come from.
And I'm open to listening. I found it to be very much.
Aesthetic centrals and historical centrals based on other
histories.
And there was no space to be inclusive of a history that is often not
written about within the history books and the texts.
And so by having a craft state and a language that looks at the
holistic component of relation in terms of.
Let's see.
Just.
I kind of felt like this was indigenous.
The idea of being a craft scape was basically what I know.
And, and now there's a word.
And so I appreciated it because I felt like, okay, great.
I can come into a space and I don't have to do a lot of labor prior
to having to justify why I'm in this conversation.
And I think that that was something that I have had as my lived
experience.
To a certain degree within the history of craft and the idea of
inclusivity and whose story is told and by whom.
So, so that's, I would say that.
I like this.
And I hope for more of it.
But I'm always the type of person to never be in a fixed position.
So my best advice is not to have too much of a fixed definition of
what a crap scape is and to, to have it be.
Continually growing and that act is through listening and
communication. So thank you.
Courtney it totally is, is, I mean, this is.
This has been my hesitation for 10 years.
Two, I've been using this term in different pieces of writing,
but to sit down and,
and codify it and to formulate exactly what it is.
I find myself resisting it all the time.
And that's in part why I was really excited to have all of you sharing
your stories.
I know all of you. I know all of you in the way that you think and,
and the kinds of stories that you might have told. So with that,
it becomes that constellation, as you were describing on this.
You know, it's very much a part of that,
but I really find myself very resistant to,
you know,
Writing my own academic article about what,
what I think a craft scape is because as soon as it becomes that
thing,
Then it does, it loses that fluidity and that flexibility.
But in that I.
In all these years.
And if it's it's reading.
And looking at and talking with,
with indigenous communities and immigrant communities and
African-American communities and thinking about intersectionality and
critical race theory. And post-colonialism, I mean,
all of that is part of.
Trying to open this up queer theory.
You know, it's,
it's all part of trying to find another way to open this,
where we can have that multiplicity is my aim and I completely.
I completely find myself resisting, wanting to like,
modify it in a very specific, like, this is what it is, you know?
So I, I.
I just wanted to share that that is a place of vulnerability for me,
that.
As an academic, I'm supposed to do that.
But everything about it makes me want to resist it and use.
You used the possibility of fungible moments like this,
to tell different stories,
to kind of give people another place to sort of shape in a different
sort of way.
Yeah.
Do you have questions for each other or something that caught your
attention about each other? And maybe we'll use that as the.
As the closing, closing conversation, but I'd love to hear what you,
what caught your attention.
Amongst you about the stories you told and the objects
that you brought in.
And craft and how it connects to craft.
We have to put the craft in there.
Are you appreciated? Everyone's.
Sharing.
Tiffany. I wanted to just acknowledge that.
The relationship that you had emphasized.
About the history of, of the land and the,
and the energy of that place and the visitation of going back to a
space and.
It's almost like looking at a time warp of someone's digital
profile.
There's this scape that happens when you step into a place and.
Not many people will come into a place as if it had a history.
To dive deeper. And,
and I think that when I talk about the idea of responsibility,
I do think that that's what I hope for.
That, that people come in. I mean, everyone.
And I should also acknowledge them and Dakota territory.
Here in Minnesota.
We all opened up to a certain degree with an acknowledgement of land.
And, and I think that that practice is something that maybe.
Is one of those things that would be a constant or consistent within a
craft scape is not so much just the acknowledgement of the indigenous
people to that place, but just the place itself,
like seeing the place, seeing the land as.
An entity as something that can be named in many names.
And, and that was something that I appreciated because I.
They'll kinship with the act.
And also kind of diving deeper and,
and showing the narratives or the stories, the untold stories.
That need to be told.
So, so thank you for your work there. Really appreciate that.
I'll ask you for your, for your comment. I.
[Unknown] broken about what you just said.
I'm also thinking about land and landscape. Something that I noticed.
From Andreas was from the cat when he mentioned one thing
he wanted people to know about him was where he was originally from,
because I actually said the same thing.
But it just, I don't know,
it stuck with me and I've been just thinking about craft and the
connections to place and landscape and on how.
On what all of that,
all of that really means and how it informs the work.
That we do and how it touches all of us.
Is is something that I'm going to be,
that's sitting with me right now,
but I'm definitely going to be taken away from this.
From from this today.
Yeah.
Everybody's kind of like connection to location was interesting,
but also.
These ideas of, of the movement of.
Of objects or individuals or people through.
Space and through landscape.
Which,
which to me kind of draws connections to kind of these ideas of like
building stories as well.
Another thing that really resonated with me from, from.
From everyone.
Well, one, one, one of the things was like this, this.
Very different.
Ways of, of, of,
of connecting to stories either through a space,
a place, an item or community.
Family or history other individuals, but it was,
it was kind of interesting how, how everything was also.
Cut links to time.
Which I, I think a lot about, and both, both these ideas of,
of, of.
Of a linear time.
But also a cyclical time that, that kind of that cycles,
and it continues to build and create on its own.
Which to me at these ideas of like linear time and cyclical time,
all you always connect to the way that somebody tells a story too.
Do you,
are you telling a story that has a beginning of an end or are you
templating telling a story that's continuously kind of like building
in, cycling on its own. And a lot of these things, I actually.
I think a lot in relation to.
To both like these ideas of, of like Imperial time versus,
or not versus, but in,
in connection to our building with like indigenous cyclical times and,
and these ideas that.
Dean an object and individual community as always slipping within.
The people that came before you, the places that you've lived,
where you are, all your history, your family.
And to me, I always kind of liked to think of objects. Like that's.
Just like building on.
Yeah.
I wouldn't add one more thing with the,
with like the crawlspace and also kind of.
I've been thinking a lot about.
[Unknown] term of the contemporary past.
And it's been something that I've been thinking a lot about for the
past couple of years, from another exhibition that I had curated.
And these ideas of.
To me once again, kind of like,
just like convergences of like anthropologic as the graphic
archeologic.
Practices.
Which in themselves kind of like do feed into.
Into these kind of more violent museum practices,
but also how can we think of,
of these objects or these craft objects through these kinds of which
you mentioned a lot with your cross space.
That would be so like wider convergences and connections to,
to other other fields and other ways of thinking of.
Of of what, what something is.
One of the things that you made me think of Andreas is.
Something that.
Pam Houston writes about, which has.
A series of, of livings.
Rather than thinking of an object or even a material is having a
lifetime.
Having a series of livings.
And so to think about how that intersects with narrative and
storytelling.
And dormancy and, you know,
fallow times four.
Artists.
But also for materials and thinking about, you know, the,
the object that was not interesting,
or the material that was not interesting to you three years ago,
all of a sudden it becomes interesting to you as a,
as a maker or as a, as a writer.
I think is really fascinating because it, it takes,
it's almost like a giant scoop that, you know, as it moves through it,
Collects all of these different energies that.
That fuse to it and then, and become part of that,
that next living let's say.
And I think that's, that's super interesting.
I love the fact that the craft scape can allow for grief to be a
material.
And can allow for repairative. Yeah.
Graft it it's so much more open.
And I appreciate that.
Well,
I just want to thank all of you for your generosity and sharing your
stories and.
Thinking through craft in, in these ways.
With everybody. And Rachel,
thank you so much for all of your help.
I,
I knew all of you were amazing storytellers and I have so much that I
am going away even thinking about even further now. So thank you all.
So, so very much for, for sharing.
And I'm going to turn it back over to Rachel. Thank you all.
Now, I just want to echo exactly that in a meta,
thank you all so much for sharing.
Your object stories, your experiences.
And everything that kind of goes into that.
And this has been such a generative conversation.
I think for everybody,
I've just been seeing a lot of action going on in the chat. Just,
I think it's, this is really resonated with quite a few people. So.
Thank you all so much for being here. Thank you for,
to our attendees for taking the time to join us.
And we're not going to close down immediately. So, you know,
feel free to, to kind of.
Sort yourself out as, as needed.
But I will probably close us out. Maybe I'm at a quarter to three,
which is our time here, a quarter to the hour.
Just to kind of let us all go on about our days and our weeks.
So thank you all.
Thanks again.