Artist Talk – Thursday, March 26th, 3-4 PM in ALEX AND ANI Hall 138
Opening Reception – Thursday, March 26th, 4-6 PM, in Bannister Gallery
In Land, Line, Blood, Memory, artist Sarah Sense (Chitimacha/Choctaw) combines her photographs of U.S. National Parks with old maps, images, and land records to explore place, history, and identity. Using techniques passed down by master weavers and learned from her grandmothers’ baskets, Sense creates visually spectacular and exquisitely crafted photoweavings that celebrate continuity and resilience across generations. This labor-intensive, hands-on process involves Sense traveling to archives and National Parks to photograph documents related to Native lands and the landscape itself. In the studio, she manipulates and waxes large photographic prints, then slices and weaves them with Chitimacha and Choctaw patterns. Ribbons unravel, cluster, twist, loop, and coil into the third dimension. Some rise upward like trees, and some plunge downward like waterfalls. By weaving various viewpoints on land, she questions the authority assigned to maps and photographs. Land, Lines, Blood, Memory is an act of restoration that honors the original human stewards of the land. Memory is not fixed or finished, but an ongoing process shaped by continued engagement, shared knowledge, and collaboration across generations. This exhibition was curated by Dr. Sara Picard, Rhode Island College Professor of Art History, and is supported by funding from the RIC Performing and Fine Arts Commission, the RIC Artist's Co-Op, the RIC Committee on College Lectures, and the Photography Network.
