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through a seed line
I found grounding in my grandmothers collections, specifically her beads. She’s someone I’ve never met but I have her cheeks, and her hands. My hands connect to her labour.
Stringing beads marked time, it passed quarantine and gave me a sense of accomplishment with every foot strung. Her jars are filled with deconstructed costume jewelry thrifted at points between the 50’s and 80’s, these beads are made of glass, acrylic, wood, mother of pearl, enamel and metal. Each bead as an individual holds beauty and flaws, they are at once stand ins for mass production and the handmade. These jars mirror my own material supplies and impulse to hoard, to thrift and deconstruct. I came back to Richmond and thrifted my own jewelry, to deconstruct and add to her collection, to add to this hanging mobile of time passed.
I see the bead as a stand in for seeds, for fertility, for the chronic conditions and emotional states passed through generations of women. This work is for a matriarch, a life lived with a history I’ve inherited through genes and collections. We share a round face and to be good with our hands.
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