Unweaving

The initial installation in Sister Cities Park in Duluth, MN was funded by a 2020 Artist Initiative Grant from the MN State Arts Board and delved deep into my personal motivation for the project, considering the historical Karelian Exodus, epigenetics/inherited memory, and unweaving from the force of assimilation to a system of Whiteness by reconciling a suppressed family story.

The project was fully supported by the city and appeared on all of the major news outlets. I wrote a piece about the project for MN Women’s Press in late 2020.

As part of The Great Northern Festival 2021, Unweaving was re-installed in Theodore Wirth Park in February, in a three-structure formation, distanced for Covid-protocols and facing outward towards the Minneapolis skyline. Building on the foundation of the Duluth-installation, this installation invited visitors to an intimate site that connected them to winter after months of isolation through fresh snow, frosty tapestries and the winter wind.

This project was highlighted in MN Monthly magazine, I wrote a piece for the Festival’s blog, and I appeared on MN Public Radio to talk abou the work.

Because the project was implemented during a pandemic, I needed to make the content (artist statement, research, resources, and photographs) available to people who were unable to travel or visit the physical installation.

Unweaving.org contains multiple essays that I wrote about the project inspiration, as well as shares books and resources on three topics: the history of the Karelian Exodus and a lost family story, research of epigenetics and ancestral inheritance, and anti-racism work.

*I include a link here to be through, but have worked to summarize the project on this page specifically for the grant-review process.

UNWEAVING project is the subject of a documentary film that was included in a WDSE/PBS program called IN THIS PLACE that featured four stories from Northeastern Minnesota. The film takes a well-rounded approach and captures the very personal way that my own processing as an artist is translated into a physical & visual piece of work.

The programing aired on WDSE television in NE Minnesota in February 2021, on tpt in the metro in March 2021, and is now viewable from anywhere on YouTube.

*I include a link to the hour-long program (the Unweaving film is second) here to be thorough, but understand that you do not have enough time to watch the film in this grant-review process.