This is an open invitation to my Home-Coming Solo Exhibit at the Northwest African American Museum in Seattle Washington. I’ll be sharing parts of the Fruits of my discoveries, of the Mystical Treasures of the Aesthetic of Funk from my Creative Explorations in the Eastern part of the United States, from the past some-odd-years in the medium of Crochet.
This exhibition will be held at the Northwest African American Museum (Which has an amazing history of it’s own). Located at 2300 South Massachusetts St. Seattle, Washington 98144. October 29, 2011-May 6, 2012.
Exhibit Opening Reception: October 29, 2011, 6:00-9:00pm. (Free)
With this project I have taken the basis homemakers craft of crochet… a humble decorative technique, commonly used to create baby clothing & accessories, doilies, tablecloths, bedspreads, window drapes and afghans to adorn the home, and altered it into an crochet Arts-of-Jubilation, composing energizing surface designs of contrasting colors and repetitive linear patterns. Creating handmade wall hanging, floor covering and soft furnishings of assembled crochet mandalas.
These Inspirational accessorized Artifacts bear witness to Re-Possessing the Ever-lasting, Ever-flowing, Sustaining Spirit of the Aesthetic of Funk, and the abilities of this under cultivated aesthetic to enhance daily life of the Super-Natural Nature of Everyday People through the art of crochet.
The important element of the cultural evolution of the Aesthetic of Funk in the African American Community, is the raw power surge of “Black Consciousness & Experiences” that has sustaining Black people through Spiritually uplifting Funky Music since Emancipation Proclamation of the 1860’s.
This exhibit is a works-in-progress. My artistic mission is to research, develop and organize the fragmented and disassemble African American’s domestic textile cultural history, into my interpretation of the evolution of crochet and the visual aesthetic of Funk.
Starting with African American Vernacular FolkArt, to the Beautification of the Humble Rural & Urban Home. The Fine Art, Abstracted Narrative Compositions of Jacob Lawrence. Onward to the Funky Assemblage Fine Art Sculptures of Nick Caves. The Cubist abstractions of William T. Williams. To Odili Donald Odita Mystical abstractioned murals. And on and on and on, into the emergence of Abstract Designs for Products designed exclusively in the Aesthetic of Funk for family, community and Global Re-Juvenation & development.
This epic Body of Works is exploring Crochet and the Aesthetic of Funk as an Inspirational alternative lifestyle of Deliverance into self sustainability. This concept of personally designing in the aesthetic of Funk, is suited for the sensibility of all creative communities and all those who feel the Tribe-Vibe call of Nature.
“THIS IS HOW WE DO IT IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST! SO COME VIBE WITH US IN THIS EMERALD CITY AT THE NORTHWEST AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM!”
Sandra Jackson-Dumont is the guest curator of XENOBIA BAILEY: THE AESTHETIC OF FUNK. She is the Kayla Skinner Deputy Director for Education + Contemporary Art Dept. at the Seattle Art Museum.
Sandra Jackson-Dumont is an independent writer/curator/cultural producer.
