Racism is a white problem

My installation re-opened last weekend, and will be on view through August 2. Weekend hours 12 - 5. Weekdays by appointment. Please note Bromfield Gallery's policies for safety during the Covid19 pandemic.

When I started work on this piece in the summer of 2018, I asked the question 'How did I end up living and working in mostly white environments?'. It had never been my goal. One answer is that the path of least resistance for a white person leads to a segregated life and to the invisibility of racism within that life. Another answer is that racist financial and governmental policies designed to benefit white people created this situation. Both are true.

The back walls my installation are made of brightly colored, hand dyed, cotton batting. I dyed and stitched the Redline map of the Greater Boston area to use as the outer walls of the installation  The original Redline maps were created as part of the New Deal, and they were used by insurance companies and banks to prevent black people and other marginalized groups from receiving mortgages or buying property in white majority neighborhoods. I used cotton batting to recreate the maps because that material is usually reserved for the inside of quilts; and quilts are often designed to tell stories. The true story about white prosperity is that it is built upon the unseen and unfairly compensated labor of black and brown people, and the biased promotion and protection of white people. The white paper cutouts show houses and college pennants, two of the tools for improving an individual's or a group's wealth and well being. These opportunities are much more available to white people than to other groups.

For more information about redlining, visit the Mapping Inequalitywebsite.