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Darlene R. Taylor Brings Local History Alive 

Through a Collage Exhibit at Academy Art Museum

Upon meeting the artist Darlene R. Taylor, you know you have crossed into a new force field. Taylor has big soulful eyes and a big infectious laugh and though she is probably only five feet tall on a good day, the moment you step into the Lederer Gallery at the Academy Art Museum, you feel as if you are experiencing the work of a giant. 

The exhibit, HEIRLOOMS, running through July 14th, is both stunning and resonant. Taylor has put to use vintage personal effects from friends and other loved ones to create collage portraits of African-American women, which she has subsequently handstitched onto lush mulberry paper. Collage, you say? Let’s be honest…most people will not run to Easton, Maryland to visit a collection after they hear this word “collage,” but it would be a mistake to dismiss this work because of the medium of its expression. In truth, it is the very fact that Taylor has meticulously mined scarves, buttons, handkerchiefs, and shawls from the keepsake boxes of the dead that give this collection its depth, its beauty. As you walk before these pieces you cannot only feel the breadth of the craftsmanship, but you can hear them quietly testifying to the immense loss America has suffered for its failure to see the elegance and dignity of the Black women who labored along its shores. 

On a rainy mid-May day, I join Taylor in a private showing of the collection’s twenty pieces. As we sit on benches atop the well-polished oak floors of the gallery room, my eyes are drawn to a piece titled “When There’s Time,” which depicts a woman in a blue petticoat carrying straw baskets as she strolls toward a small log-cabin in the distance. There are yellow forsythia at her feet that spill off as if to meet the floral tapestry along the piece’s quilted border, and yet, despite the fluidity of this movement, there is a steadiness in the woman’s gait. Taylor recalls then the story of her mother required to milk the cows before heading off to school in a rural Virginia community off the Chesapeake. Taylor chuckles at the memory of her mother’s telling, but the histories of foremothers are central to Taylor’s work. Her mother, dying from the last stages of dementia, was lying on the bed as Taylor, beside her, struggled to weave the finishing touches into her pièce de résistance, a 7’8” heirloom lace, linen-infused portrait of a woman looking toward a stretch of graveyard. This, of course, is no mere coincidence, but rather the kind of intentional and silent narration Taylor issues in her work. She is telling the stories of the lives and deaths of African-American women from the preceding two centuries; stories she can never fully know. And yet it is in the effort to reach for the past through the raw materials that were used to sew and weave and create lives of import, where this collection finds its potency. Indeed, while researching the Black women of the Chesapeake region, Taylor uncovered one of her own ancestors. A woman named “Fannie,” whom Taylor exquisitely depicts in two of her pieces. Fannie, like many of the other women portrayed, evokes the urgency in Taylor’s work. It is as if Taylor anticipates that what little is left of these women’s stories will all soon be lost. 

Now, gazing up at the largest companion pieces in the collection, “Remembering the Names of Slaves” and “The Children of Slaves Remember,” I have the feeling of stumbling into a live re-enactment, for the portrayals are so vivid, so animate, that one wants to reach out and touch the filigree of the tulle dresses, the sparkly silk-paper braids, or perhaps even inquire at the feet of these women, as if they were a reluctant but sage grandparent or a mother who has too-soon forgotten the details of her own story. 

But Taylor’s work is not limited to the personal. 

A few blocks from the museum, Taylor sat for many afternoons in the offices of the Talbot Historical Society, where she searched for the faces of women she could use to inspire a body of smaller framed portraits. This set of depictions on the far left of the gallery are an exercise in profuse detailing and deeply quiet reflection. They are women of Maryland, and in them, it is impossible not to see that each offer variances of truth, not only in the women’s earnest expressions but in their coiffed hair, their posture, in their salvaged linen framing.

Across from this set of images, written on the wall of the gallery, are words from Taylor, who is also a professor of English at Howard University. Taylor uses poetry and prose to tacitly remind us that the women portrayed in her collection are not silent figures of the past, but rather women who once had voices that were simply unheard. 

“I can hear my mother’s southern drawl,” Taylor says, as she begins to read aloud the words she has written. “Here she rest, balancing on a low-hanging limb…,”  Taylor’s voice is filled with grief, and yet, HEIRLOOMSfeels far more like a celebration. Along those gallery walls are radiant yellow Adey abeba flowers, bright Easter-pink dresses, glorious oak trees, and perfect cloth books held aloft in tiny curious hands. So much to behold in each of these gifts of portraiture. 

On Friday June 21st at 6pm, Taylor will read at the museum from a companion book. The book, also titled HEIRLOOMS, has the same exquisite craftsmanship of her art, which one should treasure since more than half the collection have already been purchased. Experienced all together, the night promises to be a tribute to all of our precious memories, all of our precious heirlooms, which at once leave us breathtakingly regretful and perhaps unreasonably hopeful.  

By Lauren Francis-Sharma, author of Book of the Little Axe

Darlene Taylor at the AAM: Reclaiming Untold Stories Through Heirloom Memories

TALBOT SPY, April 29, 2024 

by Val Cavalheri 

Currently on view through July 14th at the Academy Art Museum (AAM) is “Heirlooms,” – a profound and meaningful mixed media series by multidisciplinary artist Darlene Taylor. The collages incorporate vintage linens, laces, cottons, and buttons passed down from mother to daughter and friend to friend over generations. But Taylor doesn’t merely gather these textiles as historical artifacts. Through layering, stitching, and a poet’s lyrical touch, she weaves them into powerful artistic narratives that reclaim the inner lives of Black women so often omitted from the historical record.

Taylor’s artistic journey was inspired by the question: what stories lie within the silent gazes of Black women captured in 19th-century photographs? She felt drawn to uncovering the untold narratives of these women, whose voices had long been muted by history. “I look at those images of Black women, and I think about that moment of them standing still, sitting still, and I wonder, what does she feel? What does she think of the events happening in the world around her? I wanted to explore that through language and also through something very near and dear to me, something shared from mother to mother: stitch work. I wanted to put my hands on it.”

The ensuing collages were influenced not only by the photographs and her familial tradition of craftsmanship but also by found items from historical excavations, such as those commissioned by AAM at the former home of Henny and James Freeman – one of the earliest documented free Black land-owning families in the area dating back to 1787. “History, as a muse, points me in a direction,” Taylor said. “As I look at a historical document, as I look at photographs, I wonder how that person sits inside of a history? What about her innermost thoughts as society’s upheavals swirled around her?” 

The exhibition’s textile montages are Taylor’s ways of trying to answer some of those questions. The figures are on backgrounds of collaged paper, stitched linens, and stuck buttons and beads. “Frequently, I find that there are photographs of women where there’s much more detail about the furniture…about the lace someone in the photograph was wearing – maybe even the paint colors in the room, but nothing about that woman,” Taylor said. “And I wonder about her? What’s her story? What’s this moment? She has no agency in this space, and I want to explore places where her voice comes alive and her feelings are shared, expressed, and heard.”

The “Heirlooms” series also exemplifies Taylor’s cross-disciplinary approach, blending visual art with poetic storytelling. Handwritten vignettes and verses intermingle with the mixed media textile compositions. We read snippets like “behind her gaze// she be hold// thorn and rose” on the wall between two life-sized figures, which are turned away from the viewer. This deliberate choice is a visual metaphor for the hidden histories and unspoken truths that linger beneath the surface. Taylor says, “I don’t want to objectify them by staring them in the face. I want to stand alongside and perceive the world from their vantage – to feel the textures and atmospheres they inhabited.”

An accompanying art book, Heirlooms, which Taylor crafted and can be found at AAM (or on her website), contains the series’ poems, photographs, and some earlier work. (By the way, Taylor is no stranger to the written word, as her writing has appeared in literary journals and anthologies). 

Another striking feature of Taylor’s artwork is her invitation to the viewer to explore the feelings she’s portraying by both stepping back to take in some of the large-scale pieces and drawing near to examine the details and layered textures of the smaller, intricately stitched Victorian-type silhouettes.

The 12-inch silhouettes are a bit of a departure from the larger eight-foot pieces as they were put together at the bedside of Taylor’s ill mother, taking form as “silent dialogues” with the fading matriarch. “As I was sitting with my mother, I was contemplating, what would I say to these mothers? My mother had dementia. So I asked her questions, and sometimes I got answers. Sometimes I got silence.” In a way, these smaller figures are a tribute to the fragility of collective memory.

Something else that Taylor said she learned from her mother is a profound reverence and insistence on “tending the graves” of those who came before and preserving what fragmented testimonies endure. A particularly haunting anecdote involved discovering an unmarked cemetery with one small gravestone bearing only the chiseled word “MOTHER.” “I thought that was so powerful,” she said. “This woman is clearly loved by her children. But still, I wondered, what’s her name? When did she go? When did she come here? What more is there about her that I could know? I think about mothers, I think about that tombstone, and just what it means to be remembered, and what it means to have that absence.” The experience inspires her.

And so “Heirloom” continues to grow. “I’ve started thinking more about the textiles in those domestic spaces. So, in addition to the cloth that pressed against those mothers, the cloth they held in their hands, the cloth they wrapped their babies in, I’m also thinking about the fabrics inside the chairs, the wallpapers or wall coverings, the rugs beneath their feet. And I’m thinking about how that also expands the story of her interior life and what she must have felt.”

Just as Taylor is moved by the work she touches, so she invites the viewer to touch – no, not the exhibits – a piece of the fabric that once made up a life. It is situated at the end of the exhibit and was a powerful way to leave, becoming more aware of the importance of preserving the past and that stories can be found even in the smallest scraps of material. 

Heirlooms by Darlene Taylor is on display at the Academy Art Museum through July 14, 2024.

https://talbotspy.org/darlene-taylor-at-the-aam-reclaiming-untold-stories-through-heirloom-memories/

Art exhibit honors 60 years of racial protests from Civil Rights Act to D.C. statehood

By Sean Salai - The Washington Times - Friday, January 12, 2024

D.C. statehood. Bernie 2020. Transgender rights. Free Gaza. Black Lives Matter. These are just some of the social justice themes that 27 local artists have visualized in an exhibit honoring 60 years of racial justice protests since the 1964 Civil Rights Act — and the role of the District in nurturing them.

Organizers call the juried art show at the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities in Southeast a testimony to how the Black struggle for justice in the nation’s capital has overlapped with other left-leaning political causes.

“You can be Black and nonbinary, and the ways we define ourselves are also the ways we need to protect each other,” Michelle May-Curry, the exhibit’s curator, told The Washington Times.

At an opening ceremony Friday, city officials and local artists described the past six decades as an alternating series of victories and defeats for civil rights advocates.

“Know that nationalism, discrimination and racism will never leave this country,” said Cora Masters Barry, a member of the commission who recalled the legacy of her late husband, former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry.

Historical protests featured in the exhibit include University of the District of Columbia students calling for a national Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1981, an MLK march in 1982, the Jericho march to “free all political prisoners” in 1998 and the March for Science in April 2017. 

The exhibit includes political buttons from several protests, ranging from a 1983 demonstration for better jobs and a Code Pink anti-war demonstration to a 2015 Juneteenth rally. One pin from the 1995 Million Man March declares “Justice or Else.”

Arkansas-born civil rights activist Terrence Roberts, a member of the “Little Rock Nine” who joined the first desegregated class at Central High School in 1957, said he woke up every day fearing his name would end up on a “coroner’s list.” 

“They were going to kill us. They tried,” Mr. Roberts said.

The 78-work exhibit organizes the art into four distinct sections.

The first section displays painted portraits of key civil rights figures from Frederick Douglass to former President Barack Obama. The second includes photographs of racial justice protests in the city from the 1960s civil rights movement to Black Lives Matter demonstrations in 2020.

“We chose works based on artistic merit and cohesion to the narrative,” Maleke Glee, a juror and director of the Stable Arts Center in Northeast, told The Times. “We have gender and sexual equality, historical documentation and the continued journey to freedom for U.S. citizens. Each artist has a unique political posture.”

Cultural artifacts and mixed media bedeck the third section of the exhibit — including the protest buttons and an American flag with 52 stars, symbolizing the desired statehood of the District and Puerto Rico.

The exhibit’s fourth and final section depicts gender and sexual identity. It primarily features paintings advocating for gender and sexual identity as a protected category in future civil rights legislation.

Local artist Darlene Taylor has three textile collages in the show. She said they recall her childhood growing up in Petworth, where her parents moved in the 1960s from a segregated rural community outside of Richmond, Virginia.

Inspired by photographs, one of her pieces depicts a girl gazing into the distance. Her art features heirloom fabrics, including pieces of cloth from Ms. Taylor’s childhood dining room table. “She’s standing at the road, looking out at what’s out there and the promise of what could be there,” Ms. Taylor said. “It’s about ending segregation. I’m thinking of the women who raised me and the women who came before them.”

Other themes in this year’s “Legacy: Civil Rights at 60” exhibit include environmental rights and gentrification, said Ms. May-Curry, the curator.

“This show is a call to action, but also a reminder that social justice and the work of artists as storytellers is never finished,” she said. “I think the artists give us many ways of seeing the last 60 years, from joy and celebration to grief and loss, and holding that tension together is essential to social justice.”

Lauren Dugas Glover, public art manager for the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, said the show inaugurates a planned series of annual social justice exhibits in the commission gallery at 200 I St. SE.

“This space is going to be dedicated to social justice from Martin Luther King Day weekend through Black History Month every year,” she said. This year’s show is free and open on weekdays until March 1.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/jan/12/art-exhibit-honors-60-years-of-racial-protests-fro/

An Interview with Darlene R. Taylor

By Kerry Folan

In preparation for the construction of the Museum's new art storage facility, AAM commissioned two archeological excavations of the Talbot lots where the home of Henny and James Freeman once stood. The Freemans were one of the region's early free Black landowning families. Of the more than 6,000 historical artifacts unearthed, the most remarkable finds were personal items, including buttons, jewelry, children's toys, a woman's shoe buckle, and a hair comb. These unique objects offer a rare connection to Black domestic life in the eighteenth century particularly the lives of Black women and children, whose stories were frequently lost to history. 

In a complementary exhibition titled HEIRLOOMS, opening on April 5, multidisciplinary artist Darlene R. Taylor imagines portraits of historic Black women who lived in or moved through Talbot County. Mining historical archives for photographs and other inspirational objects, Taylor uses materials like antique handkerchiefs, lace, and buttons to create collaged vignettes exploring their interior lives. Academy magazine spoke with Taylor about her inspiration, her process, and the transportational potential of antique objects.

Kerry Folan: Where did this project begin for you?

Darlene R. Taylor: The silhouettes that I create began in response to my own personal journey searching for information about my ancestors in sources such as the U.S. Census reports from the 1800s and slave narratives from the Federal Writers Project. I became interested in stories of local women and I began searching the Talbot Historical Society databases. I was curious about the women who lived through experiences that weren't recorded in the public record. So often the lives of enslaved people were not documented. My question then became, what do I do when I experience this gap? How do I find more?

KF: With so much of the histories of Black women erased, how did you move forward?

DRT: Natasha Trethewey and Toni Morrison's work on erasure, distortion, and re-memory helped me think about the point where history and imagination can meet to fill that gap. Lucille Clifton's memoir Generations is also an influence. In it, Clifton discusses genealogy as a practice of walking through the space where people lived and trying to feel the resonance of their lives-not just looking at the historical record and data points but looking at the things that make up people's lives in the places where they had authority and considering their desires.

KF: Is that what inspired you to incorporate found objects into your work?

DRT: Yes, and those objects have become increasingly important to my work. I've been using antique textiles for some time, many of which I found in antique stores locally in Maryland. But the works in HEIRLOOMS have an even more resonant history. I had been thinking about the way the handkerchief holds so many emotions and experiences-sweat and tears, joy and sadness. When I shared that thought with my friend circle, they responded by giving me handkerchiefs and linens passed down through their own families. In this way, my work is becoming its own archive of Black women's lives. The cloth holds memory, and when it is given to me, I am connected to an ancestor through that exchange.

KF: Buttons are also a powerful symbol in your work. What do they evoke for you?

DRT: Buttons represent openings and closings. There's a line between the past and the future, and the button becomes a way of opening that door. I also love the beauty of antique buttons.

KF: Your portraits are in silhouette or from behind, leaving out specific facial features. In the act of re-imaging these women, what parts of their selves do you want to bring to life, and what do you want to leave mysterious?

DRT: In trying to imagine these lives, I am always asking what is behind each woman's gaze. Much of my work is based on photographs of women I find in historic archives. Even though we can see their faces, we often know more about the objects pictured in the room than we do about the women. So I try to stand with each woman, to look at what she is looking at. I'm not staring at her; I'm seeing the world as she sees it and observing those elements that make up her world.

Darlene R. Taylor: HEIRLOOMS will be on view from April 5 to July 28, 2024. Taylor will discuss her work at the Museum on Friday, April 5 at 6 pm.

Kerry Folan is a writer professor at George Mason University, and the founder of Shore Lit.

*This interview was published in the Spring 2024 issue of the Academy Art Museum’s magazine.