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The Southern Swing – Sydney Featherstone

Statement

The Southern Swing is an immersive installation that delves into themes of healing and social justice within the African American experience. It encompasses a porch environment with historical and supernatural elements, including hand-shaped sculptures crafted from wild clay from lynch sites, a sweet tea stand featuring an herbal remedy, and garlands of dried herbs and live foliage. Although the scene may be beautiful, each element conveys a story of grief and what may be considered a tragedy. The clay elements- the hands and the sample cups for the herbal remedy – were made with clay from various lynch sites. Throughout the year, I visited all five lynch sites within Davidson County, gathered dirt, and transformed it into clay pieces. The creation of this show involved not only the transformation of materials but also my own transformation. As a black woman, I had to reckon with the history of racial injustice and grief that affects me personally. On the porch swing, I carved the names of the five people honored with the clay pieces – Henry and Ephraim Gizzard, Jo Reed, Sam Smith, and David Jones – as well as Vanderbilt students who have passed and people whose deaths affected me personally. However, grief is never the end of the story. The Southern Swing is a place for healing. Inspired by Zora Neale Hurston’s portrayal of the porch as a gathering place for storytelling and community connection, the swing serves as a focal point for reflection and storytelling. The garden in front of the swing features plants that are traditional to African American women’s gardens during Reconstruction and the Jim Crow Era, some of which were grown with dirt gathered from Davidson County’s lynch sites. For the herbal remedy, I collaborated with a black herbalist, Iya Sonbande Greer, to create a unique blend to remedy grief. Participants can drink the tea through clay sample cups made by participants of Rooted in Clay, a class I created that provides black students an uplifting place to learn ceramics and meditate. Through this installation, I aim to evoke reverence for nature and prompt critical reflections on racial violence and resilience in African American communities, inviting attendees to connect with history and culture in a space designed to inspire empathy and understanding.

Bio

Sydney Featherstone, hailing from the Washington, D.C. metro area, is a multimedia artist currently based in Nashville, Tennessee. As a student at Vanderbilt University, she is pursuing a double major in History and Art Studio, with minors in Medicine, Health, and Society, as well as African American and Diaspora Studies.

Featherstone’s work has been featured in various exhibitions, including “Afroartivism,” “Tsu Tsi,” “No Vacancy,” and “Transformations. Her ceramic piece “This is America” earned Mid-South Ceramics First Prize in 2022.

Featherstone is deeply engaged in social justice and integrates it within her art practice. She has served as the President of Vanderbilt’s NAACP chapter, where she supports a community service partnership with the Dream Streets youth program. As a Clinton Global Fellowship Institute Fellow, she developed and implemented projects addressing educational inequality. Additionally, Featherstone has been actively involved in Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated, where she organizes events promoting racial equity. Featherstone also spearheaded an event series, called Rooted in Clay, offering black Vanderbilt a chance to develop their clay skills in an uplifting environment. For her impact, Featherstone received the Imani Rev. James Lawson Award for Community Leadership

Featherstone’s commitment to fostering empathy and understanding is evident in her artwork, which aims to illuminate social justice issues through the lens of the Black perspective. With a deep connection to the natural and supernatural realms, her art serves as a love letter to the world, inviting viewers to engage with the inherent beauty that unites us all.

Exhibition