The simplicity of a zip tie tunic, over power tie weaving, on a dress form is anything but simple.
Joyful Resistance
Despite a revolving door of daily microaggressions reminding me I do not belong, I imagine a life free from the constraints of implicit bias. I CHOOSE to live a life of Joyful Resistance, finding solace in cherished memories attached to materiality.
Joyful Resistance is a celebration of the alchemy that occurs when disparate materials are assembled to create something new, more beautiful, and more purposeful.
All the work in my upcoming solo show was made while the Pandemic took me on a emotional rollercoaster of a journey through self inspection, loss, isolation and racial trauma.
While in lockdown during the first month of the Pandemic, I organized my closet and storage unit. While sorting through my vintage accessories collection, childhood memories of playing dress up in my mother’s clothes flooded my brain like serotonin.
I recreated that moment with All Dressed Up And Nowhere To Go dressing the steel structure with Vintage hats, shoes and bags, 3 ply cotton ropes, pearls, rhinestones, wrapped ropes, yarn, trim.
beading on steel structure
I custom dyed the cotton rope a bright yellow using Jacquard ink, then wrapped it with ribbon, pom pom trim, yarn and vintage fabric from a block print tapestry that hung in my college dorm room.
These three emotional baggage carts explore the Middle Passage and its impact upon my cultural identity as a Caribbean American woman. I still have a lot to unpack here. Both Appropriation Mud Cloth Baggage Cart, on the right and Hi Yellow Mud Cloth Baggage Cart on the left are not covered in zip ties. These carts have unresolved emotional baggage connected to them.
We all carry emotional baggage. This manifests differently for each of us. Some of us carry shopping carts of pain and bitterness while some of us sport a backpack. How we choose to handle our baggage makes a difference. We have the choice, to let it define us or to let it go and move forward.
In 2020 my artist residency with NOW Friends in Nairobi Kenya was cancelled due to Covid. I had spent 6 months preparing for this residency, studying Swahili, researching local artists, looking at basketry and beading techniques.
I used the time I would have been in Kenya to clean, drill and string thousands of bottle caps into larger than life strings of pearls with the help of the Jersey City arts community during JCAST 2021.
Sunrise to Sunset
The colors of Sunrise and Sunset in St. Croix have inspired these new ropes
Craft Nouveau!
Exhibition Dates: April 1st – May 28th, 2022
Opening Reception: April 16th, 4 – 8pm
Closing Reception: May 21st, 4 – 8pm
Location: Blue Lines Arts: 405 Vernon Street Suite 100, Roseville, CA 95678
The show was juried by Ariel Zaccheo, curator at the Museum of Craft and Design in SF
Expo Chicago: Booth 377
Come see me and 5 new Emotional Baggage Carts in booth 377 at the Navy Pier April 7-9th. Stop by if you are in town or DM me.
The International Exposition Of Contemporary & Modern Art
APRIL 7 2022 – April 10 2022
Location: Navy Pier Chicago, Booth #377
April Exhibitions & Installations
Craft Nouveau!
Exhibition Dates: April 1 2022- May 28th, 2022
Opening Reception: April 16, 2022, 4:00 – 8:00pm
Closing Reception: May 21, 2022, 4:00 – 8:00pm
Location: Blue Lines Arts: 405 Vernon Street Suite 100, Roseville, CA 95678
Emotional Baggage Cart Installation @ Expo Chicago
The International Exposition of Contemporary & Modern Art
Exhibition Dates: April 7 2022 – April 10 2022
Location: Navy Pier Chicago, Booth #377
Mixed Media
Exhibition Dates: April 22, 2022 –May 22, 2022
Location: Site:Brooklyn Gallery Online Gallery
Theda Sandiford’s: Joyful Resistance
Exhibition Dates: April 22 2022 – June 4, 2022
Location:The Center for Contemporary Art; 2020 Burnt Mills Rd, Bedminster, NJ 07921
Sculpture Walk Springfield 2022-2023
Exhibition Dates: April 23,2022- May 21, 2023
Location: 411 N. Sherman Parkway, Springfield MO 65802.
International Sculpture Day
Join Sky Garden Gallery for a fun interactive rooftop photoshoot with Theda Sandiford’s Emotional Baggage Carts. Come play and have your picture taken.
Saturday April, 30 2022 from 12:00- 3:00pm
Location: 150 Bay Street, PH9, Jersey City, 10th floor
RSVP Here
Visions & Voices
Exhibition Dates: February 4, 2022 – May 21, 2022
Location: The Biggs Museum of American Art, 406 Federal St Dover DE 19901
NJSCA Fellowship Exhibition
Exhibition Dates: March 22, 2022 – May 21, 2022
Location: Artworks, 19 Everett Alley, Trenton, NJ 08611, USA
Free Your Mind Public Art Installation @ Governors Island 2022
Exhibition Dates: May- September 2022
Location: Governors Island, 406b Colonels Row
New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship Exhibition
Showcasing 2019 – 2021 Recipients of Fellowship Awards in the Visual Arts
Exhibition Dates: March 22, 2022 – May 21, 2022
Location: Artworks, 19 Everett Alley, Trenton, NJ 08611, USA
International Sculpture Day @ Sky Garden Gallery
Im sorry but I have to cancel opening the rooftop Garden. The plants are planted but they are not ready yet.
Plus I have an opening in CT, I need to get to today.
On April 30th, 2022, the world will unite in celebration of sculpture during the 8th annual International Sculpture Day!
Join Sky Garden Gallery for a fun interactive rooftop photoshoot with Theda Sandiford’s Emotional Baggage Carts.
Come play and have your picture taken.
Location: 150 Bay Street, PH9, 10th floor
Saturday, April 30 from 12:00- 3:00pm
Throwback: Mannequin
I’ve been binging Criminal Minds on Netflix since Thanksgiving 2021. The film Mannequin hits different now.
Criminal Minds Doll Maker episode gender switch and our unsub, Andrew McCarthy would be diagnosed with schizophrenia, dissociative disorder or something or other. lol