For this particular installation - I was initially toying around with the idea of a shrine in a ships hold. The ship based festival theme lent itself to the strength of the human spirit, and with the happenstance of a wooden lobster catcher I picked up in my programs studio, and me making origami boats - ideas and concepts unfolded themselves towards other things that went on boats like cargo, supplies, people, slaves, servants, etc. The possibilities of cultures and people colliding, not just with me deciding to fold origami paper, African fabric and eventually slave trade routes into boats, but with me looking at the determination of the human spirit through slavery, or migrations, Ellis Island and other events.
With the song Pirate Jenny, originally performed by Lotte Lenya and stunningly (and rightfully) reappropriated by Nina Simone, I began to research female pirates. Whoa. Fierce. Fearsome. Beating the odds as gender bending, strategic and militant ladies ruling the seas alongside and even better than men. Pirates in general started to play into the fabric of this work, and the odds they played with on the seas and governing bodies of land. The name sake of this work was a play on the Weill song, as well as a nod to female pirates and pirates in general. Moreover, as the research and work evolved in the beginning stages, I began to wonder if pirates intersected with the Atlantic Slave Trade - hence the part of me folding slave trade routes and origami paper into boats. Once I touched on that - a world opened up to me and the information I found. Can we say all systems go? I felt ready to just jump into the unknown seas of information with movement, culture and research.
With the song Pirate Jenny, originally performed by Lotte Lenya and stunningly (and rightfully) reappropriated by Nina Simone, I began to research female pirates. Whoa. Fierce. Fearsome. Beating the odds as gender bending, strategic and militant ladies ruling the seas alongside and even better than men. Pirates in general started to play into the fabric of this work, and the odds they played with on the seas and governing bodies of land. The name sake of this work was a play on the Weill song, as well as a nod to female pirates and pirates in general. Moreover, as the research and work evolved in the beginning stages, I began to wonder if pirates intersected with the Atlantic Slave Trade - hence the part of me folding slave trade routes and origami paper into boats. Once I touched on that - a world opened up to me and the information I found. Can we say all systems go? I felt ready to just jump into the unknown seas of information with movement, culture and research.
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