Intervisible: Redlining and Blind Stitching in the Fabric of Greater Boston
My installation "Intervisible: Redlining and Blind Stitching in the Fabric of Greater Boston" re-opened at the Bromfield Gallery in Boston last weekend. It will be on view through August 2nd.
When I started work on this piece in the summer of 2018, I asked the question 'How did I end up living and working in mostly white environments?'. It had never been my goal. One answer is that the path of least resistance for a white person leads to a segregated life and to the invisibility of racism within that life.
Another answer is that racist financial and governmental policies designed to benefit white people created this situation. Both are true. The back walls my installation is made of brightly colored, hand dyed, cotton batting. I dyed and stitched the Redline map of the Greater Boston area to use as the outer walls of the installation The original Redline maps were created as part of the New Deal, and they were used by insurance companies and banks to prevent black people and other marginalized groups from receiving mortgages or buying property in white majority neighborhoods.
I used cotton batting to recreate the maps because that material is usually reserved for the inside of quilts; and quilts are often designed to tell stories. The true story about white prosperity is that it is built upon the unseen and unfairly compensated labor of black and brown people, and the biased promotion and protection of white people. The white paper cutouts show houses and college pennants, two of the tools for improving an individual's or a group's wealth and well-being. These opportunities are much more available to white people than to other groups.
This piece will be featured in the July/August issue of Art Scope Magazine.
