ANCESTOR PROJECT

2018-2022


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.


View the exhibition catalog for The Road West: Julia Johnson and Anna Redwine, presented by IF Art Gallery.

About the Sail Breath performance in Brighton, England>>

About the #hiancestor performance>>

About the Ancestor Gathering installations>>


This project is 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!