May 11, 2021

Episode 67: Laying Down Fully (w/ Addoley Dzegede)

55 minutes

Hi everyone. Hope you are doing well. Things are okay so far on my end. School is ending soon and the temperature is getting hot and humid very quickly. My Chinese is steadily getting better and I have a few shows planned for the coming months, so I have to get back to my video editing as the deadline approaches. I also am doing a remote residency via Rogers Art Loft in Las Vegas in the coming summer, as well as a residency in Shanghai. I'll keep you updated about any upcoming events as they happen.

For today, I have a really wonderful chat with Addoley Dzegede, a Ghanian-American interdisciplinary artist who grew up in South Florida and is now based in Pittsburgh. Her work has been exhibited throughout the US, Europe, and Africa, and she has been at residencies such as at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida, Osei Duro in Accra, Ghana, Thread: a project of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in Senegal, and many more. Addoley employs different materials, textile traditions, and notions of “authenticity” to investigates notions of belonging, migration and location, and hybrid identities. Her work is a contemplation of the forces of history, experience, and location, as well as how they work together to tell a story, essentially, of longing as a state of being. I was able to ask Addoley more about these topics, along with the different histories of the textiles she uses, the idea of getting ready for grad school, and figuring out how to work at residencies. As a side note, I was introduced to Addoley and her partner, Lyndon, through her brother, Zechariah, who I know through my undergrad. I still am amazed at how small and interconnected the world can be, not just in the arts, but on our tiny little Earth. It is my hope we all can realize this sooner than later before it is too late. Anyway, take care, stay safe, and I hope you enjoy this.

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