With traditional Chitimacha and Choctaw basket techniques using nontraditional material of cut paper woven into flat mats and baskets, Sarah Sense has taught herself a weaving practice using photographic images, exposing socio-political themes effecting Native peoples. When traveling to meet Indigenous artists in their communities throughout the Americas and Southeast Asia, she learned about artists making art in and from the land of their community with local source materials, closely linking land to traditional preservation. Her weaving tells stories drawing on these connections.
Sarah Sense is from Sacramento, California, currently living in Bristol, England. She has a BFA from CSU Chico and a MFA from Parsons, NYC. While curator/director of the American Indian Community House Gallery, NYC, Sense catalogued the gallery’s thirty-year history, inspiring her search for international Indigenous Art. Moving to Santiago, Chile afforded an in-depth search ensuing Weaving the Americas, A Search for Native Art in the Western Hemisphere, a book and exhibition launching her international endeavors.
Spence's visit is supported by the Society of Early Americanists, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Museum of Natural and Cultural History, the Many Nations Longhouse, Department of English, Department of Art, and Professor Kirby Brown.
