“Inheritance” is a gift and a responsibility, a birthright and a debt. This exhibition, as with much of my practice, attends to the personal nature of generational legacies to inflect the constant struggle for freedom with urgency, collapsing temporal distinctions of past and present. “Family Tree” is a salon-style self portrait as deconstructed family tree; with drawings like “Cassandra’s Great Great Granddaughter” and “Uncle Rodney’s Daughter,” I am locating myself as a relational member of a continuum.
Stacks of glitter speakers, tools for communication and amplification of culture, are painted with automotive metal flake, or “candy paint,” finishes and pay tribute to the car culture of my California upbringing and the generative act of creating something grand and monolithic out of something ordinary. Whether it be rims on a car, rhinestones on a manicure, or flourishes of home decor, these acts of adornment are the ways that we become ourselves, announce ourselves, and find each other. Other everyday objects, such and aluminum cans or vintage couches, receive the same glittering and holographic treatments. With the sculptural works in this “Home Good” series I am literally shining light on the magic within the mundane and holding the living room as common but sacred space.
In my “Text Compositions,” I make graphic drawings using only words, sometimes bold and simple and sometimes detailed and intricate. These works try to fit the biggest concepts into the smallest amount of information — an elegant economy for the grand and overwhelming Everythingness of our social structures and resulting human experiences. They point to, walk around, dance with, ideas too big for language.
I make this work even when I don’t think I can. I make this work by leaning back on those that came before me and drawing their breath through my lungs, puffing my chest out, pretending I can. I make this work even though it feels like the end of the world. Because I think this might also be what the beginning feels like. A glittering rage, a head full of history but still laughing and working and bothering to paint my nails, to show up, to show out, to embody.
—Sadie Barnette
“Inheritance” is a gift and a responsibility, a birthright and a debt. This exhibition, as with much of my practice, attends to the personal nature of generational legacies to inflect the constant struggle for freedom with urgency, collapsing temporal distinctions of past and present. “Family Tree” is a salon-style self portrait as deconstructed family tree; with drawings like “Cassandra’s Great Great Granddaughter” and “Uncle Rodney’s Daughter,” I am locating myself as a relational member of a continuum.
Stacks of glitter speakers, tools for communication and amplification of culture, are painted with automotive metal flake, or “candy paint,” finishes and pay tribute to the car culture of my California upbringing and the generative act of creating something grand and monolithic out of something ordinary. Whether it be rims on a car, rhinestones on a manicure, or flourishes of home decor, these acts of adornment are the ways that we become ourselves, announce ourselves, and find each other. Other everyday objects, such and aluminum cans or vintage couches, receive the same glittering and holographic treatments. With the sculptural works in this “Home Good” series I am literally shining light on the magic within the mundane and holding the living room as common but sacred space.
In my “Text Compositions,” I make graphic drawings using only words, sometimes bold and simple and sometimes detailed and intricate. These works try to fit the biggest concepts into the smallest amount of information — an elegant economy for the grand and overwhelming Everythingness of our social structures and resulting human experiences. They point to, walk around, dance with, ideas too big for language.
I make this work even when I don’t think I can. I make this work by leaning back on those that came before me and drawing their breath through my lungs, puffing my chest out, pretending I can. I make this work even though it feels like the end of the world. Because I think this might also be what the beginning feels like. A glittering rage, a head full of history but still laughing and working and bothering to paint my nails, to show up, to show out, to embody.
—Sadie Barnette
“Inheritance,” a solo exhibition at Jessica Silverman, San Francisco, November 2021 — January 2022