Sustaining Traditions—Digital Teachings
Kelly Church
2018
- Medium
- Black ash, sweetgrass, copper and Rit dye; medicine pouch containing sage, tobacco, sweetgrass, and cedar; glass vial containing emerald ash borer and isopropyl alcohol; USB flash drive
- Dimensions
- 19.7 × 10.2 × 10.2 cm (7 13/16 × 4 1/16 × 4 1/16 in.)
- Genre
- basketry
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Styles
Tags
green (color)traditional knowledgesagetobaccopotawatomiglasscopperknowledge keepersbasketryvideo recording (process)baskets (containers)Treebasketmakingnative americanbasketottawaenvironmentdigital fileblack ashnative north americansweetgrasscontemporarycedar (wood)white (color)dyedecorative artspower pointtime based mediavideoweavingemerald ash borer
About
Native artists such as Kelly Church, a fifth-generation basket maker, have relied on black ash trees to make baskets since time immemorial. Across the United States, however, these trees are being decimated by the emerald ash borer, an invasive insect. Church envisions a future when traditional knowledge keepers like herself may not be able to teach this art to the next generation. Inside this basket, she has placed a flash drive containing files that record this knowledge for her community, entrusting our museum to preserve it.
