Woman’s Place, Sacred Space: Merriment, Make Believe, Memory, Mourning
Woman’s Place, Sacred Space: Merriment, Make Believe, Memory, Mourning includes installation art, sculpture, and dyed fabrics, and is centered around the kitchen as a space to honor traditions and work that has historically been attributed to women.
Allison Ford’s studio practice uses her background in jewelry making and woodworking to make objects in commemoration of her family heritage and explore the interconnectedness of all things. Many of the objects Ford has made for the show involve kitchen imagery, from bread inspired by her grandmother’s recipe, to spoons as a symbol of nourishment, and the table as a place of community.
Ford has always been fascinated by womens’ spaces and work, particularly in the ways they are undervalued: “All the little things that define who we are come through these spaces. They come through the food on the table, the garden in the backyard, how to care for life, how to nurture life, and how to help things survive. This is where so much of who we are and the things we hold dear and our traditions that we pass down to our children take place.”
Spider and Baba Paska
Allison Ford
Brass cast and ceramics
It is through traditions that we are capable of remembering people who have died. One of the foundational ideas for the show came from a rag that was passed down to Ford from her grandmother that was used to wrap bread. Ford considers how this rag has no monetary value yet is precious: “It is stained and has holes in it, but it is so much of my history and heritage and childhood. And also what would a woman do with a rag like that? It’s a diaper, it’s an apron, a headwrap, or a scarf. There are so many things that are embedded in domesticity. How do you take something like that and then empower it with the future?”
“I am in some ways making these objects to be representative of traditions that are gone. There’s mourning in that," says Ford. “There’s mourning in the fact that my daughters have fewer bodily autonomy rights than I did. There’s mourning in being an artist and in the fact that there’s decline in museums collecting womens’ art. There’s mourning in the expectation of what it is to be a mother. In some ways it all comes back to the table. We break bread at the table to celebrate and mourn and discuss the hardest things.”
I fundamentally believe in the interconnectedness of all things
Allison Ford
cypress
Big multi spoon
The show can be viewed anytime during the month of October during Gallery Hours: Monday – Friday from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. The works can additionally be viewed on our online gallery through November.