In 2018, I received a remarkable gift from artist Diane Sandlin, a large collection of crochet pieces created by her grandmother, Rosa Elliott Freeman (1884-1977). I was taken by the beauty and weight of these objects and the countless hours of making and providing embedded in them. With Diane’s permission, I dipped this large crochet bedspread in black pine tar, suspended it in the center of the room, and draped from it hundreds of sewing needles.

Inheritance intends to make women’s labor visible, and present. I am deeply interested in a material’s inherent ability to record the passage of time through anonymous, accumulated labor. This time, this labor was honored with the name of the maker and celebrated through a collaboration across space and time.