Conceptual Materials Social Practice Artist
While at Expo Chicago I met so many interesting people and organizations creating social practice art and making a difference in their community.
This is one of my favs…
Let me find out that the Black Creativity program at Museum of Science & Industry has been celebrating African American achievement in science, technology, engineering, art and medicine for 50 years.
by Theda Sandiford
Free Your Mind is a textile public art installation aiming to collect, embed and release personal narratives about Microaggressions.
Microaggressions are subtle, intentional — and oftentimes unintentional — everyday interactions or behaviors that communicate hostile, derogatory or negative racial messages or assumptions toward historically marginalized groups.
The weight of these daily interactions underpins very real consequences… stress, anger, frustration, self-doubt and ultimately feelings of powerlessness and invisibility.
Free Your Mind intends to expose these interactions and provide a release for the participating individuals. Participants have the feeling of being seen and acknowledged while interacting with the installation.
The installation evolves with each new ribbon, keeping a public record of disempowering interactions, that can be exposed and addressed.
Last year, Free Your Mind toured, collecting story ribbons in Bayonne NJ, Jersey City NJ, and during Miami Art Week. This summer at Governors Island, Free Your mind is documenting your story.
In this weaving, each piece of yarn is representative of a conversation where I was acknowledged for being able to express my thoughts and ideas. Being told I’m well-spoken often comes off as a backhanded compliment. It carries problematic connotations that, it is unusual for someone of my race to be intelligent or eloquent.
The completed weaving is displayed on a DYI loom, as if the work is still in progress because some version of this conversation, continues still…
The assignment… collage one iPhone photo, to pass the time while riding NJ Transit 123 bus from Union City NJ to NYC the summer of 2015.
Have you ever had someone put their hands in your hair without asking first?
This was a regular occurrence for me while riding the bus or subway… before the Pandemic. This is not ok. Please don’t pet me like a dog because my hair fascinates you.
Today, I rarely use public transportation and work mostly from home. I wonder, has social distancing caused a shift in this behavior?
Protective zip tie blankets draped on two 8 foot antique library ladders.
I know you are tempted to touch…
My piece, “Purple Fiesta”” chosen by juror, Lilly Wei, is included in the upcoming exhibit. Future Perfect/Imperfect: The Next Century.
The opening reception is Saturday, April 30, 5:00- 7:00pm.
If you want to join me for a road trip and then dash over for the last hour or so Snowball, please DM me.
Exhibition Dates : April 30 to June 9, 2022.
Location: Silvermine Gallery; 1037 Silvermine Road New Canaan, CT
The simplicity of a zip tie tunic, over power tie weaving, on a dress form is anything but simple.
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.
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.
The colors of Sunrise and Sunset in St. Croix have inspired these new ropes
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
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.
APRIL 7 2022 – April 10 2022
Location: Navy Pier Chicago, Booth #377
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
The International Exposition of Contemporary & Modern Art
Exhibition Dates: April 7 2022 – April 10 2022
Location: Navy Pier Chicago, Booth #377
Exhibition Dates: April 22, 2022 –May 22, 2022
Location: Site:Brooklyn Gallery Online Gallery
Exhibition Dates: April 22 2022 – June 4, 2022
Location:The Center for Contemporary Art; 2020 Burnt Mills Rd, Bedminster, NJ 07921
Exhibition Dates: April 23,2022- May 21, 2023
Location: 411 N. Sherman Parkway, Springfield MO 65802.
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
Exhibition Dates: February 4, 2022 – May 21, 2022
Location: The Biggs Museum of American Art, 406 Federal St Dover DE 19901
Exhibition Dates: March 22, 2022 – May 21, 2022
Location: Artworks, 19 Everett Alley, Trenton, NJ 08611, USA
Exhibition Dates: May- September 2022
Location: Governors Island, 406b Colonels Row
Exhibition Dates: March 22, 2022 – May 21, 2022
Location: Artworks, 19 Everett Alley, Trenton, NJ 08611, USA
