Studio Letter No. 005
The In Between:
The Quiet that Arrives After Making
The past couple of weeks have been all consuming with the opening of my show at Cranbrook Art Museum, a trip to Pittsburgh to prep for my upcoming residency/show, and hosting 2 groups of friends who were visiting here in Detroit. Unfortunately, that has meant I did not end up sending out studio letters the past couple of weeks, but I’m excited to be writing this letter today. So here’s what’s been going on…..
A Dreaming Hour
Two weeks ago, my latest exhibition opened at Cranbrook Art Museum. It’s fascinating to think about how consuming a show can become when you’re in the midst of making, and then…. you’re left with the silence and absence that remains when all is said and done.
For weeks and/or months, you’re consumed in a process of making work that can be so easy to lose yourself within and then, you are left with yourself. It’s an interesting time that forces you to take stock of what’s in need of tending to, as well as what no longer requires your attention.
Though I feel proud of the work that is in the show, I’m very excited to finally have some space to begin resuming work on some of the other projects that have had to take a back burner in the last few months.
I will be sharing installation images of the show on my website soon, so I will write a bit more in depth about what the work is about, what inspired it, and some of the research that I focused on for this body of work. I will most likely publish that on my website akeabrionne.com so please sign up for that newsletter if you are interested in a more in depth overview of that work in particular.
Back on the Road…
In other news, just a couple of days after my show opened, I hit the road in true Akea fashion and did a small road trip to the East Coast. For those who know me intimately, you know that I love traveling by car and I spent most of my 20’s traveling across the country via roadtrip. So I naturally ease into a state of comfort when I am back on the road; connecting with friends, researching, observing, and creating.
I spent some time back home in Maryland, but I primarily spent the majority of my time in Pittsburgh. I’ll be switching gears soon to begin work on my upcoming show at the Mattress Factory Museum in Pittsburgh, which will also include me being in residence this fall, as I make the work there.
Pittsburgh is one of my favorite cities and for various reasons, I am very seriously considering a relocation to Pittsburgh within the next few years; so I take my time there pretty seriously, as I’m considering investing all I have into a potential relocation. Considering that I will be spending the last days of summer and early fall in Pittsburgh, I will save my anecdotes about the space and wait until I’m doing my residency to dive deeper into my thoughts about the city, the museum, and the aspects of life that have drawn me to Pittsburgh for the past few years.
For now, I will share that I am extremely excited about going back to Pittsburgh, in addition to being excited about the experimentation that I’ll be able to deploy with the upcoming show at Mattress Factory.
In the garden….
I had hoped that by this point, I would have had more time to share about updates in the kitchen and the garden..but I have been in both spaces so little over the past couple of months. One of the struggles I’ve had to navigate lately has been allocating the time for the things I love to do. I make a living from the studio, so I have to prioritize it most times. That is also a reality that I am contending with and feel very differently about than I did ten years ago.
Aside from that, I also have a toddler for whom I have no childcare for; so the rest of my time goes to being a parent. During busy periods (which has felt like the entirety of the year so far) I’ve had less and less time and/or energy to dedicate to other things that I love; like cooking and gardening. It’s not that these activities aren’t happening, but I haven’t had as much space to document them in the ways that I had hoped. I’m hoping to be able to carve out more time for that next year, but I can say that the tomatoes in particular, are doing well and I am hoping to begin prepping for a fall harvest, but I am trying to figure out how to navigate that with my upcoming residency.
One of the struggles with gardening and growing your own food is that it really does require presence, and the ways that you have to tend to your crops is in direct conflict with the flexibility, unpredictability, and movement that is often required as a self-employed artist. My partner has been a great help when I’m away, but it still doesn’t replace a full time investment during the short crop window (especially with the even shorter window that we have here in Michigan).
I will be thinking very intentionally this fall about what an expanded practice of growing more food will actually require, in terms of the shifts I will need to make in traveling and allocating my time to be home more during this season.
Music On Repeat This Week
(In No Particular Order):
Concierto de Aranjuez by Rosinha De Valenca
Secret by Maroon 5
Undertow by Sara Bareilles
i love me by Joy Rhodes
The Art of Letting Go by Fred Irie
What I’m Reading This Week:
So a few months ago, I stumbled across a book titled American Sculpture of the Sixties, published by The Grand Rapids Art Museum. It’s a water stained text that I found while browing through one of my favorite used book stores, John K King, here in Detroit. The book focuses on an overview of an exhibition at the Grand Rapids Art Museum sponsored by the Women’s Committee. I’ve been increasingly drawn to wooden sculptures over the past couple of years, especially after visiting the studio of Thaddeus Mosley before his recent passing. This book doesn’t include many words but is a fascinating archive of sculptural developments of the 1960’s and I’ve enjoyed browsing through it this past week.
That’s all for this week’s studio letter. I hope you’re well and I’m looking forward to writing to you again next week :)
~Akea <3
