59th Street Stories: The Ways of the Folk
These works are inspired by letters written by African-American families from Birmingham. Letters such as these were a primary source of contact between family members who remained in the South, and their relatives who journeyed North during the Great Migration following the Civil War. The earth used to create the pigment originates from soil I collected during an archaeological dig of the slave quarters at the historic Tannehill iron works near Birmingham. These works on paper are paired with the Site of the Spirit: Land of My Father installation to serve as the narrative voices of that work.
