The images above were taken at the Miccosukee Village Museum, in Miami, Florida, in September 2019. They are part of my research about the Miccosukee Nation as for my upcoming 2021 exhibition at the Pérez Art Museum Miami I intend to create a new family of Curtains using Miccosukee patchwork as the linear structure for each panel. Mostly designs of patchworks are based on natural elements or living beings: Fire, Strom, Lightning, Rain, Turtle, Running Water, Coming of Fire, Milky Way, Snake Jaw, Wave, Bird. All these are concrete abstractions of nature, of the landscape and environment of the Everglades. These abstractions will be contained, supported, and exhibited by the curtains, on an installation that should dialogue with space, architecture, the public, and hopefully with the history of the Miccosukee Nation in Florida. Another idea I have with this project is to use the museum as a platform for members of the Miccosukee community, involve them in the education program, in talks, workshops, which could range from subjects related to the patchwork itself to political and environmental issues that concern them. Considering the notion of Honorable Harvest, I believe this is a small yet important gesture, of giving back. My intention is not to appropriate, yet to learn from the process, hopefully creating a 2-way exchange situation, were both the Curtains and Patchworks gain from each other.
The exhibition is being curated by Jennifer Inacio and was scheduled to open May 2020, yet was postponed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The new dates for the show (if everything goes well) are July 2021 – January 2022.
