Jheanelle Garriques. Photo by Stevie Rae Gibbs. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Garriques at the Huntington Library.
Garriques reads 18th-century letters in the Elizabeth Montagu archive at The Huntington as part of her research.
Participants in one of five salons Garriques hosted at The Huntington this summer. Clockwise from bottom left: Camille LaGrange, Turay Turay, Sydney Lopez, Rachel O’Leary, Renae Keene, Jheanelle Garriques, and Afton Montgomery.
After a discussion and writing session focusing on hair, Garriques (left) and salon participants Turay Turay and Camille LaGrange decorate headbands.
A rehearsal at The Huntington for “Bodies of Lineage,” an evening of song, dance, and narrative crafted by Garriques in collaboration with Sokamba Performing Arts Company. Left to right are salon member Sydney Lopez and Sokamba dancers Lara Marcin, Rachelle Clark, and Caribay Franke.
Dancer Rachelle Clark rehearses for “Bodies of Lineage,” an evening of song, dance, and narrative crafted by Garriques in collaboration with Sokamba Performing Arts Company.
Writing salon member Sydney Lopez during a rehearsal for “Bodies of Lineage,” an evening of song, dance, and narrative crafted by Garriques in collaboration with Sokamba Performing Arts Company. In the background are Sokamba dancer Caribay Franke and salon member Jamie Lew.
“Bodies of Lineage,” an evening of song, dance, and narrative by Garriques in collaboration with Sokamba Performing Arts Company, took place in September 2017 at The Huntington. Photo by Gilda Davidian. Courtesy of Women’s Center for Creative Work.
“Bodies of Lineage,” an evening of song, dance, and narrative by Garriques in collaboration with Sokamba Performing Arts Company, took place in September 2017 at The Huntington. Photo by Gilda Davidian. Courtesy of Women’s Center for Creative Work.
“Bodies of Lineage,” an evening of song, dance, and narrative by Garriques in collaboration with Sokamba Performing Arts Company, took place in September 2017 at The Huntington. Photo by Gilda Davidian. Courtesy of Women’s Center for Creative Work.
In 2014, when she was still a student at USC, poet, dancer, and performer Jheanelle Garriques started her writing salon, Naked Narratives. She wanted to create a space for femme-identified people from a variety of backgrounds to explore their lived experiences through the written word. During her residency at The Huntington, she pored over the letters of Lady Elizabeth Robinson Montagu, a British aristocrat who started what was in many ways a feminist salon in London, circa 1760. The Huntington holds more than 7,000 of Montagu’s papers. “I’m trying to draw a thread through the experiences of these people working in 18th-century Britain and the femmes that I’m working with,” says Garriques, who hosted five salons with seven femme participants at The Huntington this summer. At the first meeting, they wrote about lips; at the second, hands; and at subsequent meetings, hair, eyes, and finally skin. Then together, in collaboration with the Sokamba Performing Arts Company, Garriques and her salon members hosted a night of dance, music, and narrative called “Bodies of Lineage.” They translated Montagu’s words and their own into movement. “In this performance and overall project, I really sought to uncover the living, breathing aspects of writing as a conduit for human connection,” says Garriques. A photograph from the performance appears as a design element in the culminating /five exhibition, “COLLECTION/S: WCCW/five at The Huntington,” along with writings by Naked Narrative salon participants and letters by Montagu and her peers, making connections between feminists of the past and present.
Kiki Loveday (née kerrie welsh)
Kiki Loveday (née kerrie welsh). Photo by C.E. Nolen. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Loveday at the Huntington Library.
Loveday researches representations of the ancient Greek love poet Sappho in the Library.
Loveday at The Huntington’s 2017 An Evening Among the Roses event celebrating the LGBTQ+ community at The Huntington. At the event, Loveday invited guests to participate in her /five project—titled “What You Love”— by writing down their queer love stories. She also brought in four performers to re-interpret a 1900 performance in which actress Olga Nethersole shocked the world by portraying the Greek lyric poet Sappho in an openly sexual manner.
Loveday speaks with guests at her participatory station at Evening Among the Roses.
Performers Jheanelle Garriques and Cindy Chung Camins at An Evening Among the Roses.
Card with Loveday’s prompt to share stories of LGBTQ+ love at her participatory station at An Evening Among the Roses.
Loveday makes stationery from her own copies of Alphonse Daudet’s Sappho: Parisian Manners, using torn pages along with newspapers and other materials to create pulp. She wrote letters on this handmade stationery and sent them to individuals and organizations, inviting them to share and record stories of queer love.
Loveday wrote letters on handmade stationery to request stories of queer love for her archive.
Loveday incorporated the poetry of Sappho into letters she wrote to individuals and organizations in the LGBTQ community, requesting stories of queer love.
Object from Loveday’s “What You Love” archive, 2017.
Object from Loveday’s “What You Love” archive, 2017.
Objects from Loveday’s “What You Love” archive, 2017.
Cards and notes submitted to Loveday’s “What You Love” archive, 2017.
Letter on handmade paper, sent from Kiki Loveday to Hillary Clinton as part of “What You Love,” 2017.
On February 23, 1900, police arrested actress Olga Nethersole at a theater in New York City and charged her with “giving indecent and immoral public exhibition.” She had been performing on stage as a modernized version of Sappho, the ancient Greek female writer famed for her poems about female love, in an openly sexual manner. The scandal surrounding Nethersole’s performance intrigued Kiki Loveday (née kerrie welsh), an experimental filmmaker working on her doctorate in Film and Digital Media at University of California, Santa Cruz. Renowned as Sappho may be, little historical information about her life exists. But imagined versions of her story abound in film and literature. During her residency at The Huntington, Loveday studied hundreds of references made to Sappho in the Library’s archive. Because queer love stories are often omitted from the historical record, she also spent her residency collecting them. She has sent letters—written on handmade stationery made from pages of her own copies of Alphonse Daudet’s popular 19th-century novel Sappho—to LGBTQ individuals and organizations, asking for first-person recollections of love stories. The building of the archive is an ongoing project called “What You Love,” and Loveday is exhibiting some of the letters, poems, and stories she’s collected in a vitrine at the exhibition “COLLECTION/S: WCCW/five at The Huntington.” Since Loveday is asking that people share their stories, she felt it important to share some of her own as well; versions of four of the handcrafted letters she sent out are on view. A turn-of-the-century writing desk is included in the exhibition as well, so visitors can contribute to “What You Love.” Visitors may also browse a collection of books about queer history included in the installation and on loan from the Feminist Library On Wheels and Loveday’s own collection.
Soyoung Shin. Photo by Sayoko Cox. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Shin photographs an 18th-century tapestry-covered firescreen in the Huntington Art Gallery as part of her research.
Shin takes notes on The Huntington’s historic carpet Astrology in the Huntington Art Gallery as part of her research.
Shin photographs a tapestry sample (ca. 1890) at The Huntington as part of her research.
Shin stitches a border of one of two tapestries she commissioned while the other hangs on the wall behind her. The tapestry on the table reproduces a 1946 photo of eight men in front of an early computer called the ENIAC while the tapestry on the wall features five women who were important to the history of computing and textiles, yet received little recognition for their efforts.
For her project “Picture Elements,” Shin places a copy of the tapestry she commissioned depicting five women over the tapestry of eight men.
The border of Shin’s tapestry recalls the intricate designs in The Huntington’s 18th-century Beauvais tapestries made after designs by François Boucher, on display in the Huntington Art Gallery.
On the wall of Shin’s studio is an image of a painting she commissioned for her project “Picture Elements.” The painting depicts five women important to the history of computing and textiles and became the basis for the tapestry Shin had woven in Belgium.
Shin carefully cuts out the images of men in her tapestry. In hole left behind, she will stitch in a section of the other tapestry featuring women important to the history of computing. Photo by Kim Aldinger and Aerienne Russell. Photo courtesy of artist.
Soyoung Shin, after a design by Melanie Florio, 24,000 BCE–1992 CE, 2017, 2017. Jacquard tapestry and cotton thread.
The ornately detailed Beauvais tapestries that hang in The Huntington’s galleries likely once had royal arms along the top borders. The arms are gone now—after the French Revolution, craftspeople replaced them with a decorative, gold-colored border. The tapestries, designed by artist Francois Boucher and made by the Beauvais Tapestry Manufactory between 1757 and 1760, inspired artist Soyoung Shin, who was interested in making her own revisionist history textile. She was also interested in the relationship between textiles and the evolution of computing. Shin cites the loom that Frenchman Joseph Jacquard designed in 1804, which used punch cards to store weaving instructions. This practice formed the basis for modern computing. All modern computing, despite the endemic sexism in the industry, thus stems from a craft now conventionally, if inaccurately, viewed as feminine. During her time in residence at The Huntington, Shin designed two tapestries of her own that were woven by a Belgian factory in Flanders. She based one on a 1946 photo of eight men standing in front of ENIAC, among the earliest general computers ever made. None of the women involved in building ENIAC were included in that postwar image. To both emphasize and rectify that historic erasure, Shin extracted the men in the first tapestry and replaced them with images from the second tapestry—based on a painting by Melanie Florio that Shin had commissioned—which depicts women central to computing history: ENIAC programmers Betty Holberton and Jean Bartik, textile artist and scholar Anni Albers, mathematician Ada Lovelace, and Navy programmer Grace Hopper.
Juliana Wisdom. Photo by Evan Backer. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Wisdom photographs Sèvres porcelain at The Huntington as part of her research.
Wisdom in the Huntington Art Gallery.
In her studio, Wisdom works on a sculpture inspired by works in The Huntington’s collections.
In her studio, Wisdom works on a sculpture inspired by works in The Huntington’s collections.
In her studio, Wisdom begins work on a new sculpture inspired by works in The Huntington’s collections.
On the wall of Wisdom’s studio is a detailed sketch she made of the Rococo wig she would craft from porcelain.
Wisdom’s handcrafted porcelain flowers and vessels await firing in a kiln. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Works in progress atop a workbench in Wisdom’s studio. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Creating a color palette inspired by Sèvres porcelain was one step in Wisdom’s process. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Juliana Wisdom, La Marquise de Pompadour, 2017. Porcelain, enamel, epoxy, and polyurethane foam.
Juliana Wisdom, La Marquise de Pompadour, 2017. Porcelain, enamel, epoxy, and polyurethane foam.
Juliana Wisdom, The Three Graces and Marie Antoinette, 2017. Porcelain and enamel.
Juliana Wisdom, The Three Graces and Marie Antoinette, 2017. Porcelain and enamel.
Juliana Wisdom, La Salonnière et l’Atelier des Fleurs, 2017. Porcelain, enamel, stoneware, and epoxy resin.
Juliana Wisdom, La Salonnière et l’Atelier des Fleurs, 2017. Porcelain, enamel, stoneware, and epoxy resin.
Juliana Wisdom, Geneviève Taillandier and the Third Estate, 2017. Porcelain, wood, and enamel.
Juliana Wisdom, Geneviève Taillandier and the Third Estate, 2017. Porcelain, wood, and enamel.
“It’s just kind of bursting at the seams with opulence and femininity,” artist Juliana Wisdom says of historic, decorative porcelain. Her research centered around The Huntington’s collection of Sèvres porcelain. It was all made in the 18th and 19th centuries, often by uncredited women who worked from home, carting delicate objects back and forth to the Sèvres manufactory. She searched for traces of these female workers in the Sèvres manufactory directories owned by The Huntington, and also researched the women who patronized the manufactory. Her research informed the ceramic sculptures—multiple vessels, a wig, and a wig stand—that she made herself. Her vessels not only incorporate decorative elements inspired by Sèvres porcelain, but also suggest, through their forms and the imagery, a different story about women’s labor. The vessel titled Three Graces and Marie Antoinette features a painted portrait of the executed queen, who invested in decorative porcelain. The “graces” who surround her represent three classes: common people, the bourgeoisie, and the aristocracy. In exploring and reimaging the legacy of the Sèvres manufactory, Wisdom is acknowledging both female labor and the class struggles affecting life in 18th- and 19th-century France. “Studying how these objects were made and who made them can be a way to transform how we think about history,” she says.
Olivia Chumacero and Sarita Dougherty
Olivia Chumacero. Photo by Chris Cruse. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Sarita Dougherty. Photo by Chris Cruse. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Dougherty and Chumacero at The Huntington.
Chumacero works with cinematographer Sandra de la Loza on a video near The Huntington’s Ranch Garden.
Dougherty works on a painting at the The Huntington’s Ranch Garden.
Chumacero works with cinematographer Sandra de la Loza on a video near The Huntington’s Ranch Garden.
Chumacero sits alongside Dougherty as Dougherty works on a painting at The Huntington’s Ranch Garden.
Chumacero records the sound of a water cascade in The Huntington’s Japanese Garden.
In the hands of artist Dougherty, a scene from an uncultivated area at The Huntington becomes suffused with energy.
Still from Chumacero’s video When Light Married Water, 2017.
Still from Chumacero’s video When Light Married Water, 2017.
Sarita Dougherty, Song before Harvest (Mexican Pine, Mugwort, and Coast Live Oak en la Huerta de Cuati), 2017. Oil on board.
Sarita Dougherty, Community Bloom (Ecosystem with Ceanothus, Holly Oak, and Matilija), 2017, oil on board, and section of Domestic Flora, 2017, vinyl wallpaper.
Painter Sarita Dougherty usually works from life, so she brought her oil paints to The Huntington’s gardens. Her collaborator, Olivia Chumacero, brought her video camera and sound equipment, and the two worked to capture the symbiotic relationships of plants growing in the gardens. In the past, Dougherty and Chumacero have worked collaboratively on research, performances, and installations honoring nature. Chumacero founded the organization Everything is Medicine, an organization that teaches people about indigenous uses of California flora. The two artists worked primarily in an uncultivated area of The Huntington’s grounds not open to the public, where the plants are much less manicured. In the spring, they took inspiration from the Ceonothus, or California lilac, bloom. In autumn, both connected with the elegant Oaxacan weeping pine. Dougherty created two paintings and designed wallpaper depicting California plants and animals at The Huntington. Chumacero filmed the spring bloom and dormant season on the grounds, recording sounds of the gardens to accompany her footage. Together, the two artists captured this ecosystem’s interrelationships and its connection to humanity.
Zya S. Levy. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Levy in The Huntington’s Desert Garden.
Levy takes notes on a golden barrel cactus at The Huntington as part of her research.
Levy takes notes in The Huntington’s Desert Garden as part of her research.
In her outdoor art studio, Levy creates a plaster cast of a cactus by pouring liquid plaster into a mold.
Levy peels the latex mold from a plaster cast of a cactus.
A stunningly detailed plaster cast of a cactus sits next to its unassuming latex mold.
A salmon-colored latex mold is a mirror image of the plaster cactus it created.
Plaster cactus casts from Levy’s Green-Gold, Black and White, 2017.
Plaster cactus casts from Levy’s Green-Gold, Black and White, 2017.
Plaster cactus casts from Levy’s Green-Gold, Black and White, 2017.
A crate of plaster cactus casts from Levy’s Green-Gold, Black and White, 2017.
“I really view plants as storytellers,” says botanist and artist Zya Levy. At The Huntington, Levy explored different kinds of narratives—for instance, that of the golden barrel cactus, of which The Huntington has 500 specimens. The ball-shaped plant once existed only in a volcanic valley in Mexico. Thanks to over-zealous plant collectors and flooding caused by a dam project, the cactus became endangered in its native habitat. Counterintuitively, the golden barrel is now ubiquitous in Los Angeles as a landscaping choice. Levy’s interest in the effects that plant collecting and its legacy have on everyday realities informed her work at The Huntington. She made 300 plaster casts of cacti, based on models found at Home Depot, Sal’s Cactus Mart in Filmore, California, and on street corners. 150 of these are on view in “COLLECTION/S: WCCW/five at The Huntington.” Levy also recorded ambient sounds in Eaton Canyon, L.A.’s streets, The Huntington’s gardens, and in New Mexico. The sounds narrate the movement of species from wild to urban settings, and from uncultivated to cultivated environments. In addition, she planned three hour-long walking tours for the public: one in downtown L.A., one in Highland Park, and one in The Huntington’s Desert Garden. At these tours, Levy told the stories of plants that grow in these environments, emphasizing where they come from, what they’ve been used for, and why they’re here now.
