Swan Song was a collaboration between me and Amber Bledsoe, as two members of the art collective Good Manufacturing. It was exhibited in a soon-to-be-renovated former recreation center in Grand Rapids, MI as part of ArtPrize in 2023. For this we received a $3,000 local artist grant.
After standing for 99 years, the Kensington School Building was demolished by the Grand Rapids Board of Education in winter of 2024. In light of this, we asked ourselves, how best can we honor the beauty of this building before it is lost? Our answer was to connect our craft with the craftsmanship of the school's past. We created each piece of our installation through an intimate connection with the building's structure: joining the school's neighbors in rubbing its bricks onto paper and fabric, casting its pillars to make molds, and keenly examining the vegetation growing on its surfaces. Ultimately, our swan song was a remix, one that highlights the beauty of the school and the labor it took to craft it.
Independently, as a duo, and with neighborhood members Amber Bledsoe and I captured the school with crayon rubbings on paper and fabric as well as latex casting.
