January 28 – September 19, 2021 • Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia)
Statement by artist L’Merchie Frazier:
“Black and Indigenous people have a shared history of over 500 years in unwritten, unrecognized, and unacknowledged narrative about the spaces that they occupy physically, mentally, and spiritually. Freedom Rising: I Am the Story exhibition features selected moments that confront racism and the relationship dynamics of ownership, becoming property-less, of being deemed property, and the question of belonging.
“The journey to creating a sense of establishing selfhood and importance that is manifest in today’s protests is a trek of reclaiming the right to self-possession and ownership of elevated voice, story, and space. Importantly the direct action to embrace the right to exist, claim one’s own self-worth, beauty, and love is a marked effort that fuels the move from insignificance to significance.”
About the artist:
L’Merchie Frazier, a public fiber artist, quilter, historian, innovator, poet and holographer, has served the artistic community for more than 25 years nationally and internationally with visual and performance art residencies in Boston, Brazil, Taiwan, Costa Rica, Africa, France, and Cuba. A public lecturer and community workshop presenter, her spatial and social justice artistic work activates youth and adults in a co-design model that reflects the participants as creative actors and their occupancy in democratizing the socio-economic political landscape.
View the virtual exhibition on Mia’s website here.
Curated by Carolyn L. Mazloomi, this exhibition was part of Textile Center and Women of Color Quilters Network’s We Are the Story initiative. These quilts, along with the artist’s statement, are included in the book We Are the Story: A Visual Response to Racism by Carolyn L. Mazloomi, and it is available for purchase through Textile Center’s retail shop or online. (Click here to order.)
(Header image: L’Merchie Frazier, I Matter)