In conjunction with the exhibition Dead Treez on view at the Museum of Arts and Design from November 10, 2015 through April 3, 2016, Ebony G. Patterson was invited to take part in MAD’s new POV series with …buried again to carry on growing…, an installation of the permanent jewelry collection through the perspective of her own studio practice. Extending themes from Dead Treez, the artist turns the gallery into a garden-like environment of poisonous plants with three scenarios, in which bodies sheathed in patterned fabrics have succumbed to violence often endemic to marginalized communities. Throughout the cases, works of jewelry selected from MAD’s permanent collection are positioned to appear as though the pieces once belonged to the bodies that are disappearing in the underbrush.
The title …buried again to carry on growing… is inspired by the poem “Brief Lives” by Jamaican poet and author Olive Senior.
Dead Treez is the first solo New York museum show by artist Ebony G. Patterson, who splits her time between Kingston, Jamaica and Lexington, KY. Incorporating mixed-media installations and jacquard photo tapestries, Patterson explores visibility, in terms of class, gender, race and the media. Her highly adorned, almost illuminated images and objects are intended to attract and seduce the viewers, challenging them to look closer.
Dead Treez was organized by the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and curated by Karen Patterson. It was secured for the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) by William and Mildred Lasdon Chief Curator, Shannon R. Stratton.
…buried again to carry on growing… is an original MAD exhibition, organized by Stratton with the support of Curatorial Assistant and Project Manager, Barbara Paris Gifford.