Crucible 'Earthseed' exhibition publication

EARTHSEED

NYCJW 2022

Crucible, a global community of BIPOC artists, is bringing together makers and thinkers whose work has planted roots in African, Asian, Indigenous, Queer, and transcultural-futurism. The mothership arrives on the eve of New York City Jewelry Week in the form of our expansive multidisciplinary exhibition event, ‘Earthseed’.

Fluidly exploring metaphysical identity, astronomy, cosmology, mysticism, science fiction, and magic, ‘Earthseed’ is an ode to Octavia E Butler’s Parable of the Sower. With a decolonial lens that considers both evolutionary ecology and ancestral wisdom, we explore new hybrid identities and forms of being. We draw on science-fiction narratives and reinvent old dialogues with their racial and heteronormative bias.

‘Earthseed’ is an opportunity for a cross-cultural exchange of skills, knowledge, and connection. It is essential that we engage in a real dialogue to address the issues of our changing world. Here we can decide the future of our generation and explore ways in which we as BIPOC can share in the richness of our legacies in order to thrive.

Morvaid Alavifard states: "Pearl being Valuable, being pure, being perfect, being ‘pearl’ * is something which has been pressured to me to be. The pressure that the value was in, gold and pearls could buy my power and freedom and give me safety. This pressure gave away my freedom, gave away my power, gave away my value, objectified me and created pain. But where is my real freedom? Do I need to choose between my freedom and my safety? What shall I do with this conflict? This pain has layers and layers and would never leave me, but if I leave it as it is. it was never repaired. This Repairing is by destruction.

They might say destruction is the way of destroying or is the way of showing anger and hates or whatsoever and I agree but on a deep level, destruction is creation. Without destroying I cannot see the beauty, because the beauty is in the moments and in the details. When you destroy something maybe it causes it to disappear physically, but they create a moment of consciousness, the moment of leaving something behind and affected the moment of creation.

In the moment I’ve been heated, it takes time to be released and vulnerable, but layers and layers show off. The moment of vulnerability creates this dramatic explosion and realizes all the hidden shout. The shout shows all the layers inside me and keeps peeling off. Layers were there and will be there but at least they have been seen. They never disappeared because they create flakes and leave the shine behind, and it leaves memories and experiences.” *Pearl the object you see and me ''Morvarid (Meaning Pearl in Persian)''

APEX ZERO

MUSIC/FILM/SPOKEN WORD

APEXZERO.CO.UK @APEX.ZERO

DRUMMER WARRIOR STORYTELLER (PART

1)

Drummer Warrior Storyteller' strives to embody Nigerian author Chinua Achebe’s perception of storytelling: the Drummer calls the people, the Warrior fights the war, the Storyteller recounts the events, creating history, forming memory and giving meaning to the survival of those who endure. Centering African Caribbean perspectives, the album explores personal experiences of oppression and liberation of diasporic, migrant and marginalized people in London and beyond through music, film, dance, photography, painting, listening experiences and performance in this engaging, immersive exhibition and live theatre production.

With input from many collaborators, 'Drummer Warrior Storyteller' focuses on the frustration, anger, alienation and awareness caused by racism, its embedded structures, police/state violence and denial of opportunity, whilst also striving to break from the image of the ‘struggling’ Black figure, exploring joy, love and aspirations to live and grow despite society’s obstacles.

Zhanna states: “Living a life that is connected with constant moving and changing countries, I save my ‘Earthseed’ and grow again and again. We grow and we change. By shaping ourselves, we can save ourselves. By changing ourselves, we can change everything around us!”

Kurak necklace

zippers, felt, silver hoop

Zhanna Assanova is a jewelry designer based in Kazakhstan. Her work explores the theme of identity, cultural code, connection with the ancestors and the Earth. Zhanna works primarily with zipper and textile and has presented her collection in national Kazakh “Kurak” patchwork style, a practice that Ancient Nomad people used to make carpets. Her main idea is to preserve a gene (birth) thread which connects us with our ancestors, their history and culture, save the "Earthseed". The word "Earthseed" comes from the idea that the seeds of the life on Earth can be transplanted, and through adaptation will grow, in many different types of situations or places. Zhanna relates to her work, her jewelry, as to a seed. This is her connection with her ancestors through ornament.

AMIRA AYAD

Amira states: "This is part of my ‘coffee’ collection, built on the idea of telling ones fortune from a coffee cup. With Turkish coffee, the grounds are what tell the story! It connects you with your future… A good reader will see many things, from people and animals to symbols and inanimate objects. By combining these images, the fortuneteller weaves the story of your days to come... connecting your present with your future!”

ABO ELGOUD

Alaa states: "It’s like a journey to know more about ourselves, to know what’s inside of us, to know it well, before exploring what is actually outside. It’s the loop of balance and imbalance we fall in, and it’s never ending, that’s a fact. There’s no such thing as final destination, there’s no absolute home... or maybe there’s one."

TAISHA CARRINGTON

Hug Links Neckpiece

Barbadian clay, resin, silver, cotton cord.

Taisha Carrington states: ‘I Had A Dream of a New Old Caribbean’ reimagines how black people came to the Caribbean; proposing that they arrived as superheroes who escaped slave ships and not as enslaved people. I use this ‘new history’ as a reference guide when exploring my home Barbados; instead of seeing beaches and canefields as reminders of a colonial past I imagine them as homes of superheroes and places where they would find materials for talismans. These artworks serve as anchors to build new memories on to combat the complexities of postcolonial trauma and foster communal healing. I gather volcanic ash, clay, welks and conch shell during walking meditations. I obtain the mother of pearl by removing the exterior of the welks shell and any unused shell pieces are returned to the beach. The form and materials of each piece tell individual stories of resilience, survival, creolized knowledge and vibrant futures.

‘Hug Links’ neckpiece

This piece is dearest to me, it’s the one that started this body of work and helped me clarify what I was trying to do: imagine new futures for us by reimagining the origins of black people in the Caribbean. For me ‘Cuban link’ chains (/curb link) represent prosperity and wealth in Black communities. This neck piece uses the familiarity of the Cuban link as a way to overlay/ introduce joy to more challenging imagery….By reimagining the bodies in this neckpiece as hugging each other and linked in prosperity, I am attempting to replace the familiar image of persons on slave ships packed in a similar manner: I had a Dream of a New Old Caribbean.

‘My Ivory is pink Rings’ 'My ivory is pink rings' speak to the creolized knowledge of afro-Caribbean people. When the imagined superheroes arrived in the Caribbean to find no elephants, perhaps they would think of conch shells as a suitable substitute for ivory to carve and make jewelry. These rings celebrate adaptation to new homes.’

MARYAM FAHIM

Maryam Fahim states: ‘This pendant is inspired by an idea that my partner had earlier this year of building a second pond in our garden. It seemed as we were the only people in our neighborhood creating a home for different animals and plants. The most visible creatures, the frogs were jumping up everywhere we would step.

Wetlands, ponds, bogs and swamps are one of the most efficient carbon sinks in the world. They provide areas for larvae to grow which results in more and diverse food for birds and other insects. Biodiversity in these spaces enhances the woodlands and grasslands around. Having more ponds in the neighborhood could connect them to other similarly natured ecosystems and would provide corridors for nature to flow.

In a lecture on Aesthetics and Mystical Vision, Alan Watts said ‘everything that doesn’t wiggle is boring’, or what we call “square”. ‘Things that don’t wiggle just don’t swing! In dancing, hips move independently from the shoulders, they wiggle. People, who consider themselves the epitome of civilization could find this obscene and improper’. In his lecture, Watts compares Hindu dancers’ movements to plants in a current. Many of us get enticed and hypnotized by this special behavior.

The world inside the pond pendant does definitely wiggle and I aim to create fluidly shaped objects that feel natural even if they are cast in metal. The symbol of the egg stands for new beginnings - new beginnings created through rewilding.’

mixed media

Farvash (b. Iran) is an artist based in Sweden working at the intersection of art and technology. It is a practice in flux yet focused on transformative processes, from the exploration of micro-realities to the navigation of contemporary immigrant guilt. Farvash’s work has three core strands: one rooted deeply in Persian mythology, history, and ontology. Another addressing the de- and reconstruction of identity in relation to trauma, isolation, and the personal experience of war and migration. Stemming from her background in the field of chemistry, a third explores the relationship between matter and non-matter, the seen/unseen, and how matter can both materialise and disappear.

NATASHA FONTENELLE

CORNERS

Created during a residency in Saint Lucia, 'CORNERS' highlights themes of site specificity and occupying space. Looking at how the act of drawing and acknowledging the existence of 'THE QUIET ONES', gave them the validity and attention they required to grow freely, transform and comfortably occupy a larger space.

KASSANDRA GORDON

ROOTS AND REGGAE

Roots and Reggae is a collection celebrating British Jamaican culture and exploring reconnecting with your heritage as an adult with new eyes, understanding the significance of preserving the family legacy, heritage, practices and culture. Jewelry, adornment, moving images, and storytelling connects the old with the new. Kassandra is using creativity to preserve heritage, starting with jewelry. Through work as a fine jeweler Kassandra had conversations with clientele from various backgrounds that inspired her to think about family, tradition, and community.

Kudkuran ng Niyog

wood, acrylic paint, brass

Gabriel Hutchings Filipino heritage is represented with the use of a coconut grater he fabricated out of brass attached to a rocking horse, inspired by the traditional coconut graters used in the Philippines. This version is not only a tool, but is a toy to play with adorned in traditionally inspired patterns of the Visayan region. The traditional coconut graters in the Philippines are a wooden stool-like structure that is sat on for support and that has a metal grater on the end. This tool is sometimes called a horse because of its shape and some are designed to look like animals. The Kudkaran ng Niyog rocking horse is colored brightly in patterns seen in Filipino culture, two facial expressions on each side that reflects fear and frustration, and a brass grater sticking out of its head.

Gabriel states: 'This object mirrors my own hybridity and how as a FilipinoAmerican, with being white and Filipino, I can become confused and frustrated in my relationship of how I could be authentic to myself and my own cultural experience which is not fully Filipino nor American. This rocking horse allows me to play with my identity and create my own expression of culture.'

SYLVER EULALEE MAIR

JEWELRY FILM FINE ART

tin plate

Sylver states: “The direction of my project was heavily influenced by Toyin Ojih Odutola: A Countervailing Theory exhibition at the Barbican, for which she was inspired by rocks found in ancient Africa with pictorial inscriptions (similar to hieroglyphics) to create her own ‘otherworldly parable’ centering black women and reclaiming the patriarchal narrative that runs throughout history, through finding sexual pleasure on their own terms. I decided to take my project in a similar direction except this time the catalyst being tin ore (cassiterite) - the key historical importance of tin was tin ore (Cassiterite) found in Ancient Mesopotamia which was then combined with copper to create the alloy bronze in the mid-4th millennium BC. Also influencing the narrative are my own experiences of sexual assault and wider historical context and metallurgy…

(cont.)

“My intentions for the project were to reject the shame and stigma surrounding female masturbation and reclaim the power of the black womxn on her own terms and not the terms of abusive men. Addressing issues and aspects of race, religion and enlightenment, toxic masculinity, mental health, sexual assault, masturbation and gender, through the lens of jewelry; using the tin plate’s materiality to reflect, enhance and visualize these concepts, in order to reclaim my own narratives by turning something ‘dark’ into something ‘beautiful’. Reflection and sharpness were the two aspects of the tin I was most inspired by and wanted to develop with my samples, observing how the tin reacted/moved depending on different methods or combinations of cutting and folding to create extremely sharp edges.

“Illustration was a key aspect of my material development taking inspiration from the marks and patterns the sex toys made when dipped in ink and used as a drawing material, exploring vibration and movement and how I could reflect that in my work. This then developed into finding ways to ‘draw’ in metal transforming the two-dimensional sketches into 3d and trying to maintain the same layered, vibrating, hair-like aesthetic with the tin plate. Photography and editing was integral to visualize more abstract concepts and experiment with different ways of communicating them. For my final piece I have created the final ‘scene’ of the narrative I devised, the tin cracking and melting to make way for the bronze at a moment of climax - Bronze being harder and more durable than previous metals reflecting the strength that comes with being a black womxn.

“Taking inspiration from ancient religion deities such as ‘The Queen of the Night’ (the Ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, sex and war) and Kali ( known as ‘the black goddess - she who is black, she who is death) and bringing these ideas into the modern day, creating a kind of dominatrix. Using shape and the materiality of the tin to reflect my development of the Virgin-whore dichotomy by expanding this archetype to include the negro (or Jezebel) - the three aspects I believe combined create the sexual archetype of the black womxn. Hence why the structure of the piece is made from three panels each with three layers within them - the different finishes on the front panel reflecting these three identities through their forms. The three energies bursting out to create a new bronze womxn in a moment of orgasmic ecstasy and the beard of sex offender that stimulated fear now torn apart and repurposed as a sexy, dangerous armor that will slice any person who attempts to take what isn’t theirs”.

BARBARA MAJEK

The Construction of Blackness II

‘The Construction of Blackness’ is a developing series; experimenting connections between the Mysticism of Blackness, Yoruba Mythology and Cosmology. Challenging the constructed ‘black’ identity and deep-rooted perceptions of blackness. Mysticism and imagination is used as a tool, to navigate oppressive radicalized conditions.

‘The Construction of Blackness II’ attempts to tackle the complex dimensions of Blackness, beyond western myth. Black as color is pure darkness, absorber of light but despite the binary use of the term. It’s appropriated into a category, color and often ignored as a frequency. Barbara Majek states: ‘My practice-based research uses materiality as a constant source of information. An opening, gateway to remember, build new worlds and reimagine ways of being. By transforming abandoned materials and developing new textures, the work invites deep looking and transcendence through ‘dark matter’.

MAIRI MILLAR

Our Lady of Sorrows / La Diablesse

sterling silver & tulle

Mairi Millar states: ‘The work I've put forward speaks to voicing my grievances for my home country Trinidad & Tobago. I think it's easy to cast it as a mythical paradise from afar, but it's also important to put aside the nostalgia that comes from distancing yourself from that home, and confront the emotions we must numb in order to live there, emotions too painful to fully acknowledge. My pieces speak to the homophobic culture back home as well as the devastating rate of the violence against and murder of women, all stemming from a deep culture of misogyny. (La Diablesse) - In Trinidad there is a culture of violence towards women that only got worse with the pandemic. Burned, dismembered, buried, discarded, growing up and living there as a girl there is always another name announced in the news, adding to the fear and a constant reminder that we could be next.

I thought about stories we tell ourselves, folklore that either shapes or reflects a culture. Many of the characters in Trinidadian lore has a common thread of evil women, women who violate and kill men. La Diablesse plays the role of the temptress, concealing her identity in white lace and luring men into the forest to be killed. I thought about how this was the completely opposite of what was happening in reality en masse. In my mind La Diablesse does not exist in the form her lore preaches, but as a mourner. She carries that same heavy feeling all women in Trinidad carry when news breaks: hopelessness, fear, grief, and a lack of freedom. I imagine her white lace instead as a black ethereal veil, adorned with silver tears of the names of women we have lost, as she roams the forest in mourning for them, the moon catching the light of each silver identity and life.’

Moore has created her own term ‘wildness’ in contemporary painting which she feels speaks both to her approach within her practice but suggests the state of contemporary painting through the lens of art history and its current context within the immediate conversations surrounding painting. Black Roses saw Moore expanding the language of ‘Wildness’ in the form of her creating her own visual coded language.

Although Moore defines herself as a painter her practice and the explorative sense of wildness can be seen in her studio. Sometimes this takes form through brush and paint to canvas; other times it is through yarn and weaving, or installation, play and performance.

‘Stand in and Collapse in Time’ references the no linear relationship that time has when questioning our position through the past, present and Future.

For our Ancestors hold the keys to our futures through their prays and wishes. Whilst we navigate the physical terrain of the present through the gestures of our past.

Which all collapse and fold into the different crevices of time.

Stand In and Collapse in Time

EARTHSTRONG

JAZ MORRISON

8 mins, moving image/short film, silent, B/W

‘EARTHSTRONG’ explores the fight in self-definition and the reclaiming of identity, in a homage to the restorative power of community. It is through community that we are able to find understanding, acceptance, care, catharsis, rest, and of course, joy. Accompanied by an arrangement of multi-instrumentalist, and 2021 Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Composition Prize award winner, Millicent James' 'Torn' (2020, Moyo, Vol. 1).

FLEURI LA BELLE NGAPY

JEWELRY DESIGNER @FLEURILABELLE

‘Embracing Black’ is a collection of chains and afro combs for people that were separated from their African roots, that serve as tools to reconnect with that part of themselves and celebrate black pride and identity. Fleuri states: 'Growing up being mixed Dutch-Congolese in The Netherlands, I never had much connection to my Congolese roots. 'Embracing Black' is a project about embracing my African roots and skin color. As a person of color, I often feel out of place in the white-western dominated world.'

Fleuri has made a series of amulet chains that tell the story of an ancient Congolese cosmology, brought into the future. The five chains represent the phases of life: birth, life, death, the horizon between life and death, and the afterlife. The materials used in the collection are an assembly of modern and traditional. The wood used in the afro combs grows in the Congo. The chains come together in a spiritual paint ritual where the wearer aims to embrace their skin color, thus their African ancestry.

AYESHA SUREYA

MUDWRAP RING

brass. sterling silver.

In her recent collection, ‘Devas’, Ayesha is communicating her concepts through metals and 3D artworks to achieve hyper realistic levels of detail to capture their divinity much like the icons from which they derive. Each jewel gives evidence of a creative synthesis of religious ideologies and themes with modern techniques, creating a new mythology and form that enables us to communicate with and relate to a world remote from us.

brass

SIOBHAN WALLACE

CLONELY PLANET

Siobhan Wallace states: ‘Clonely Planet' is a continuation of my exploration of the tension between data that is implied and data that is made explicit. The pieces in this collection depict mutation of genes in the body but only through the visual breakdown of the classic curb chain trope. Whereas other pieces I have created express a specific gene mutation, this collection is representative of the constant state of flux in the body.’

Barbara's language about jewelry design communicates the creation of a special experience. As a jewelry designer, Barbara feels strongly about the use of expression in details. This set of works aims to bring out the oft ignored beauty within the process of defamiliarizing fabrics, clothes, and threads that usually showcase the evocative feelings within us and jewelry, where intangible values are added onto. Through pulling the strings bit by bit out from the existing weaves, a meditative journey has been found, an endless performance that invokes excitement, boredom, tiredness, and returns to excitement again. Barbara considers the pieces not only aimed for wearing, but to also be observed as stand-alone artworks. The touch and feel of their texture, sense of balance and simple forms are mostly inspired by the unassuming beauty found in the everyday.

Hard Scrim Cotton with thread-removing

BARBARA YIXUAN WEI

Bloodsport > The Island

Bloodsport > The Island was a virtual live-action roleplay (LARP) first devised for UNFIX Festival 2021, facilitating the spontaneous co-creation of in-game consensus reality amongst adult participants, aided by a hybrid assortment of online collaboration platforms and analogue tools.

Set at the 'House of Blood' on 'The Island'; a worldbuilding temple on a speculative, post-extractivist, solarpunk Earth featured in Bea Xu’s short climate fiction Hot Globules, the event initiated accomplices into the LARP as pubescent menstruators arriving for the first time at the celestial research facility. The mission was to journey deep into the mysteries of the moon, the body and the Earth to intuit pathways to shift the planet from a Type 1 (star-energy-dependent) to a Type 2 (galaxyenergy-dependent) civilization.

The participants self-selected their character archetype from a matrix of ‘Signatures’, divined by the artist out of I-Ching hexagrams with blood-anointed digits, and included as a silk print for this current exhibition. Spontaneous narrative-building occurred in planetary breakout rooms before a virtual group ritual integrated narrative pieces with breathing exercises, elemental magic and creative visualizations. Each initiate arrived at a question to seek from the Earth by the end of the ritual, informed by their role and in-game experiences, and were instructed to seek answers from an object at a preselected physical patch of Earth. Finally, all returned to the call to refine their messages into a group ‘incantation’ – which forms the seed text from which Xu’s live Earthseed LARP taster event on 16 th December germinates and tentatively blossoms.