Manifest Destiny and the Age of Enlightenment, Hand embroidery and beadwork on hand painted linen, 2023, 9 x 12 inches
DUWENAVUE SANTÉ JOHNSON
Artist Statement
My artistic journey celebrates creation, culture, and community engagement. Through textile and mixed media exploration, I interweave the stories of marginalised communities, promoting inclusivity and collaboration. My current body of work, "Things Falling Apart and Break Away Migrations," explores the concept of retrieval and transformation. Like a china cabinet falling to the ground, I collect and sort through retrievable pieces of fragments, each containing a seeded memory. These shards and fragments are combined to take on new life and character, embodying strength, anger, and beauty. Creations naturally emerge from intense emotional states, involving uncomfortable responses to perceptions and resilience, painstakingly reassembled onto new spaces while shapeshifting into new objects and identities. With the shapeshifting nature when chaos presents itself, migrations and journeys are sure to follow, leading to circular beauty and joy.
I aim to inspire others to embrace their roots and diversity, fostering understanding and connection through visual art and techniques like hand embroidery. Contemplating the past and future is central to my work as I seek to understand the intertwined nature of the world and personal struggles. Sharing, communicating, and inspiring others to follow what grows and brings confidence is paramount to creating a bright future. The space I work in determines the size of my pieces, while the world outside defines my color palette, experiences, and focus.
My mission is to engage audiences and promote dialogue, understanding, and appreciation of our diverse heritage and shared history. I am committed to fostering connections, bridging divides, and promoting social cohesion, holding space for others to share and express their stories through textile-inspired media such as collages and hand embroidery—allowing engagement opportunities to stitch, mend, and bond stories together in a specific time and space. Paper, fabric, and thread become the vessels through which narratives unfold, each piece a page in a book, each shape a moving image.
Guided by principles of environmental sustainability, my artistic choices include the use of plant pigments and textile techniques that add movement, wholeness, and depth to my work. My goal is to continually evolve and refine my craft, creating visual outcomes that foster understanding and connection, leaving a lasting impact on the communities I serve.