#hiancestor performance

2019

The #hiancestor performance addresses the connection between all people. I invite strangers to participate by drawing their ancestors through quick portraits on postcards. I then deliver those postcards to seemingly unrelated recipients. Looking far enough back we all share ancestors, and as such are all related-- even those of us who have immigrated from far away, or who are neighbors.

Track your ancestor postcard or register one you received with the #hiancestor hashtag on social media.


This performance was developed during a residency with the D2P Program for Drawing Performance Practice, funded in part by the South Carolina Arts Commission (which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts and by a generous award from the John and Susan Bennett Memorial Arts Fund of the Coastal Community Foundation of SC.) Thank you!

ABOUT THE ANCESTOR PROJECT & THE ROAD WEST

#hiancestor is an extension of the Ancestor Project and The Road West exhibition, installation and art book:

I define my creative action as drawing, whether I'm using paint, charcoal or other media. In my work the word 'draw' means not only to place marks on a surface but also to extract, like to draw a breath or to draw a conclusion.

In this project I draw my ancestors to explore increasingly vital current-day issues of empathy and the shared human experience. I invite these ancestors to introduce themselves to me through the medium of self-portraiture. Each drawing is both a literal self-portrait (I draw them using a mirror) and a searching lens into the lives of other generations. As part of an interdisciplinary collaboration with poet Julia Johnson, these images address themes of identity and displacement, drawing from our own experiences as recently as post-Katrina New Orleans, looking back through the Irish and German emigrations, and even farther back through the formative events of our very distant past.

At a time when identity can be so fluid and displacement is a global reality, it's important to recognize the long contribution of the individuals who compose each of us. I'm not just me, I'm the sum of multitudes of ancestors whose blood is my blood, whose lives ultimately became my life. The immigrants of today will be the ancestors of tomorrow. This project aims to illuminate the connection between people through time to stimulate present-day empathy.