In 2003,  artist Sherri Lynn explored personal feelings of confinement by volunteering at a women’s correctional facility in North Carolina. When her volunteer time concluded, she had set in place a tradition of caring which continues today.

Wood is an extraordinarily versatile bay area artist. Her social practice projects engage individuals in a variety of  community settings.  Her innovative workshops on quilting and sewing are a respite for the overworked creative soul.

I first met Wood in 2010 when she was exhibiting her Passage Quilts (http://www.passagequilts.com ) and Prayer Banner: REPENT / MERCY / GLORY in a gallery exhibition I helped to install entitled, The Art of Transformation at John F. Kennedy University.

Below is a photo collage from the ongoing series Repent/Mercy/Glory. Wood invites gallery goers and sewing groups to help create the artwork. 

During the Art of Transformation exhibition Wood delivered a public talk on her work and shared photos and audio clips of her projects: The Mantra Trailer, 1200 Hats, Prayer Banner, Passage Quilts, Tattoo Baby Dolls and Group Stitching Mantra.

Wood’s social practice artworks  embrace people from many walks of life. Public participation provides the link between ideas and the resulting art forms, which for the most part are not predetermined.  The act of sewing, crocheting, speaking and reciting becomes the channel whereby the terrain of the personal and communal is negotiated.

Mantra Trailer   Sherri Lynn Wood

http://www.mantratrailer.com/

The majority of  Wood’s projects employ textile arts to create a bridge for participants to tangle with hope, despair, grief and joy. There is a characteristic of compassion which consistently resonates throughout her work. Participants have a safe space, whether it be a stitching circle or a mantra trailer, where they are able to be heard and share deeply felt emotions, fears, hopes and desires. In a world where we are bombarded with messages on how to think, look, be and feel, Wood’s offering spaces are a sanctuary of freedom.

In keeping with the idea of this blog focusing upon art which intentionally builds community, I chose to dialogue with Sherri about her 1200 Hats project. Recently I had read several dismal statistics on incarceration rates and prison construction in the United States and 1200 Hats came to mind. I wanted to know more about the project. How did an artist offer an opportunity for incarcerated women to respond to the needs of another  community of incarcerated women?

1200 Hats exhibition (2003), collaboration with residents at the

North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women.

What initially drew you to work with incarcerated women?

After my first year in the Bard MFA program I felt very confined. So I decided to volunteer at a woman’s prison for a year to get a better understanding of confinement from people who were living that reality.

It is intriguing you felt confined and decided to spend more time with that feeling and explored it in a deeper way. It says a lot about you as a person, about your courage to confront the uncomfortable. And then out of that exploration, this amazing project evolved which took you on a journey.  

In so many of your projects you rely on the participation and responses of the people you are interacting with in order to achieve an end result.  I suspect there must be some suspense from not knowing how people will respond.  When you were working with the women involved in the 1200 Hats project, was there an  instance when you were surprised by a participant’s response to your intended project?

I was surprised. After a few months of working with the women I thought we would create some abstract rendering in crochet on prison life, but when I asked the women what kind of installation they wanted to create with the yarn they said they wanted to make something useful like hats or blankets.

So 1200 Hats was a co-created idea between you and the women?

The project was definitely co-created, but the core idea came from the incarcerated women. We decided to make a hat for every woman in the prison, about 1200 at that time. One of the prison rules for volunteers was, if you were asked for anything by one of the residents, the answer was “NO” – unless you could give it to everyone. Like a stamp for example. When the women told me they wanted to make hats I thought if we created a hat for every woman we could distribute them to the entire prison population.

That was a great response to the prison rule. Many people would not have jumped into another project of finding yarn. What other kinds of challenges did you face?

The women were wonderful to work with. They welcomed me once they saw that I was making a long term weekly commitment to be with them in the prison. The biggest challenge was from the prison authority. I never asked permission to do an art project with the residents. I just started doing creative activities with them at first and the project began to grow. Eventually, after knitting a few hundred hats we (myself and the small staff that worked with the group of thirty-five women under their supervision), had to get permission from the warden to continue. I had to align the project to the political agenda of the warden and others in order to carry on. There was a lot of negotiation.

It just so happened at that time that a NC state senator was working with the warden on a prison reform initiative for non-violent women offenders with children under twelve, so that they could serve their time with their children in a special facility. I convinced the warden to move forward with a public exhibition of the hats as a way to focus awareness on this initiative. She agreed, but required that the project be open to all the prison residents, so that everyone could contribute to making hats, which was okay by me.

At one point there was a show down over the hats. I was sitting in a room with the warden and the senator and they asked who the hats belonged to. They wanted them to be auctioned for the prison reform initiative. They vetoed the idea of distributing the hats to the residents as talismans for hope and renewal, and threatened to shut down the project on the spot if I didn’t cooperate. It was hard letting go of my vision, but when I talked to the women about it they were eager to donate their hats in order to do something good for their community. They wanted to support their sisters in need through this new reform initiative.

Being given a choice of ‘our way or no more crocheting’ did not give you the option to NOT cooperate. That seems like a pivotal point in the project and ironically it brought even more exposure to the work.  Amazingly you say the project has continued, so it is obvious you and the women made a great choice.

The big challenge with community based art is negotiating the institutional structures. I had to be willing to let go of my vision and willingly invite others to shape the project with me. At first it felt like a failure whenever my vision was thwarted, but later I realized that this was the beauty and success of the project.

The photos from the installation of the hats were very engaging and a testimony to the hard work and effort made by the women. Where was the  exhibit installed and were the incarcerated women able to see it?

The exhibition was installed for over a month at the Durham Arts Council. The opening reception was huge. Over $8000 worth of yarn was donated from members of local churches and synagogues. Many people contributed yarn, crocheted hats, visited with me in the prison, and spent hours helping install the project. So many people were involved, and they brought all of their friends. The warden, senator, guards and staff from the prison attended. They brought about a dozen of the prison residents who actually worked on the project. The women were dressed like everyone else in fancy clothes suitable for an art opening, so nobody knew they were serving time. It was a very popular, well attended and effective installation. By the comments that were left, we could tell that lots of people on the outside, who viewed the exhibition, thought deeply about the ramification of so many incarcerated women, seeing them as mothers and human beings for the first time.

What an unexpected gift, to have an unintended consequence be a positive impact – in the decision to share 1200 Hats, incarcerated women were seen as whole people.  

After the exhibition, the hats were auctioned to raise money for, Our Children’s Place. The residents of the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women continue to crochet hats to benefit Our Children’s Place, a facility for non-violent offenders, who happen to also be women with children. http://ourchildrensplace.com/pdfs/HATS.pdf

Do you know if an exchange of this sort, between prisoners, has been accomplished before your 1200 Hats Project?

Certainly not in the prison that I worked with. I wasn’t aware of any precedents in other prisons before I started although I’m sure there were some. I just jumped in because of my interest. Actually the project didn’t get much attention or feedback when I brought it back to art school. In 2003 “social practice” was not really a part of the definition of art at that time. The language and acceptance of “social practice” as art wasn’t fully incorporated into the art schools yet – especially in NY – maybe more so – on the west coast.

You were definitely tuned into the big antennae because there are MFA and MA programs in Social Practice, Social Sculpture and Community Practice springing up throughout the states and abroad. It is amusing that artists pride themselves on creativity, but when it comes to reinventing the forms and functions of art, the new definitions are often not readily welcomed. It seems many people have benefited from the fortitude you displayed to carry on with 1200 Hats in spite of some challenges.  I am glad you had time to share the stories associated with the project. I have a much deeper understanding of the challenges and triumphs. 

At the closing of the 1200 Hats, after the installation was down and before the hats were turned over for auction, Wood created a video as a personal response to the project. See the you tube video below:

To see more of Sherri Lynn Wood’s inspiring work please visit: http://www.daintytime.net

http://www.facebook.com/daintytime

Up and coming Sherri Wood is teaching a two week Improv Quilting workshop at Penland School of Craft in June 2011, geared toward educators, called Mapping the Rhythm of Attention.  For more info: http://www.penland.org/classes/summer/summer_textiles.html

Sherri’s talks  Improv:

“Improv is not random or off the cuff quilting. There is more to it than just grabbing pieces blindly and sewing them willy-nilly. It’s a practice of being present.”

Did you wonder why there were no photos of the incarcerated women? No photo taking was allowed in the prison. If you want to learn more about the criminal justice system in America today, below are few good reads:

Punishment and Inequality in America, by Bruce Western
Russell Sage Foundation

Orange Is The New Black, my year in a women’s prison, By Piper Kerman

Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy
by Jeff Manza and Christopher Uggen

A  good link:

Women’s Prison Association                                                                         http://www.wpaonline.org/

The honoring of her ancestral stories offers healing for her family and community – past, present, and future. Simultaneously, her connection to her ancestors assists her in being able to extend compassion and create space in American communities for minority voices to be seen and heard. Shintani works in the mediums of assemblage, installation and performance to generate visual stories which bring vital issues to light. Remembrance, connection and storytelling are reoccurring themes in her personal art and community art. Frequently her work includes objects of healing, similar to fetish figures created by indigenous cultures.

"Refugees Are Like Birds in a Cage" Made by Laotian community member in History, Healing, and Hope workshop

Recently, Building Community through the Arts interviewed Shintani about a project she facilitated with the Laotian community in Seattle, WA.

How has your involvement in community based art projects led you to working with the Laotian community in Seattle?

It was interesting how this happened. My installation piece Remembrance Shrine was exhibited at the artXchange Gallery up in Seattle. This piece is about the Japanese American Internment and showcased internee’s memories gathered from my family, Reiko Fujii’s family, some friends’ families, and from a Craigslist posting. Viewers of the piece were invited to write their thoughts on strips of paper that they tied to the shrine. Sakuna Thongchanh who represents Legacies of War in the Seattle area was at the exhibit. She was very intrigued with the storytelling and educational aspect of the installation. I was in the process of organizing a workshop at the artXchange Gallery and decided to get in touch with Sakuna to see how we could collaborate.

What is the title of the project and what was required of the participants?

The group Legacies of War was created to raise awareness about the history of the Vietnam War-era bombing in Laos, to provide space for healing the wounds of war and to create greater hope for a future of peace. We named our collaboration the History, Healing, and Hope Community Workshop. Our intention was to offer participants the opportunity to use art as a powerful force in expressing history and personal experiences.

Laotian is my Heritage, America is my Home

When did you conceive of the project and how long did it take for you to bring it to fruition?

We had about three weeks to pull the project together and we spent a lot of time on the phone since Sakuna is in Seattle and I am in Half Moon Bay, CA. She was very interested in having me construct a form for the stories to be displayed on, similar to the rice paper covered birdcage shrine I made for the Japanese Internment memories. We settled on a tree since it conveys growth, hope and there is a tradition of hanging papers on trees in the Laotian Temples. I created the tree in my art studio and emailed in progress photos to Sakuna.

Memory Tree

There were some criteria I had to take into consideration – like it had to be lightweight and easy to assemble for future exhibits and it had to fit in my truck. When I completed the tree I loaded it up and drove it to Seattle for the workshop.

ArtXchange did the publicity for the workshop and Sakuna did outreach to her group. We both developed short presentations for the workshop. Upon arriving in Seattle, I went shopping with Sakuna to Southeast Asian markets to pick up things to use in the art making, like banana leaves, tamarind seeds, spices, papers, tea, orchids and rice, and other items which are traditional to Laotian culture.

What do you hope the participants and the audience will learn from the project?

This was the first art workshop that Legacies had done with the group. The attendees came with stories to “tell” and more came to mind during the art making. I hope they will be able to continue to use art as a way to communicate and share their stories and history.

I was really was inspired that some families came to the workshop, with members aged four to 80 years old, drawing side by side. I appreciated that they were educating the younger generations.

How do you hope to share the project with a larger audience?

I was not aware of the Laos war tragedies. It is the most bombed country in the world. There are many cluster bombs that are still being accidentally detonated and Laotians, including many children, continue to be maimed today. I am hoping to have the Memory Tree installation exhibited in additional locations so more people can be educated and touched by the heartfelt artwork created during the workshop.  I have been talking with Legacies about making a book of the artwork created during the workshop so the stories can be told to an even larger audience.

I am so glad you are facilitating these community projects where people can express their experiences and stories.  It is really important work.

Do you have upcoming exhibitions or projects you want people to know about?

• Some of the art pieces from the Legacies workshop are going to be displayed soon at the Wing Luke Art Museum http:// www.wingluke.org/

• Journeys, Art at the Cheese Factory, Petaluma, until May 31st. www.artatthecheesefactory.org/exhibition.html

• Simply Book Arts, Pt. Reyes (contact artist for more detailed information)

• Re-Claim at SomARTs, 934 Brannan St, San Francisco, CA 94103 reception May 6 (through Asian Pacific Islanders Cultural Center) www.somarts.org

Can people contact you if they want to learn more about the community based art works you are facilitating? Definitely!

My website: www.judyshintani.com

Electronic mail: judyshintani@yahoo.com

Phone: 650-464-4736

Please also check out:

My blog post about the Legacies workshop:

http://judykitsune.wordpress.com/2009/08/02/history-healing-and-hope-art-workshop-created-intergenerational-memories/

Judy Shintani earned a BA in Graphic Design from San Jose State University and an MA in Transformative Art from John F. Kennedy University in Berkeley, CA.

All photo credits, Judy Shintani