Transcript:

[Joyce J. Scott scats from her song “Try Me”]

[Scott] Hi everybody, it’s Joyce J. Scott, and this is my 50-year retrospective.

And as you move into this room, the first room, I consider this to be my pièce de résistance. Because this room has some contemporary and new installations, as well as an entire mélange of my smaller beadwork as wall hangings. You walk in, you see this this four paneled building with a chair that’s covered in books that I call the “Seat of Knowledge” on the inside. The inside is lined with beadwork, and on the outside are four quilts that were made by my mother, my grandfather, my godmother, and my grandmother. And the “Seat of Knowledge” is upholstered with a quilt from one of my other grandmothers. This is an installation that is really like the culmination of my ideas of what I could do three dimensionally. It’s also the extension of beadwork: it’s taking a very humble material and what is considered as a humble technique done all over the world, and talking about how I can use it as an architecture and sculptural technique. And as you walk around, you’ll see quilts that my mother made. They are my impulse. I am continuing the artwork that was given to me by my mother and by my ancestors. I’m standing in some very deep and big footprints.

There are four sculptures in the four corners of this room. And they are sentinels, guardians or soothsayers. And then there’s this giant wall hanging I did with four assistants and the person who made the armature.

And you know, when I talk about this impulse and my desire to work with others, that’s what I’ve done in every room. And the other audio stops are conversations with artists and makers and craftspeople. Listen to all of these conversations. Maybe they’re fun. Maybe they’re serious. Maybe they’re crazy, funny, loud with my friends and other people who appreciate the kind of work that I do. You know that old phrase, “it’s so good it knocked my socks off”? This will happen to you.