Jasmine Best (Greensboro, NC) | October 2021

Curation Doll draws power to protect so that we do not have to be strong. The doll figure has skin made of images of flowers arranged from Elsewhere’s own fabric collection. The era of these fabrics informs the aesthetic and associations of the florals. The actual flowers collected from the collection drape the doll and, it’s resting chair, and the frames on the wall creating a protective covering. The artist’s own family would make fabric dolls and place them on chairs both as showcases of skills previously only appreciated in a domestic context but what felt to be as protectors of a domestic space. The Doll figure sits relaxed and reserved in front of an abstracted family photo wall. Pulling more power from the idea of personal black curation in reference to an essay by Bell Hooks about how home photo walls were some of the only places Black people were able to control their own image in a gallery like space.

Charis Fleshner (Loveland, CO) | June 2021

Personification and anthropomorphism of inanimate objects has always been apart of how I physically and emotionally navigate the world and connect to objects. There is actually a branch of metaphysics called object-oriented ontology that studies this. During my time sewing at Elsewhere, I became irreversibly attached to a vintage, collection Pfaff sewing machine, even naming it "Jaime". This work is simply my love note to Jaime, me amore! The fabric hearts used in the installation are hidden somewhere in Elsewhere.