Browsing by Author ""McMaster, Chelsea""
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Item Open Access The Unbound Archive(Alfred University, 2024) "McMaster, Chelsea"; "Briggs, Paul S"; "Green, Nicki"; "Hanes, Stephanie"; "Kelleher, Matt"; "McConnell, Walter"; "Sikora, Linda""The Unbound Archive is a living reliquary for stories, memories, and everyday objects. In this space, these objects are imbued with reverence for the daily rituals, practices, and culture that they facilitate. The Archive endeavors to halt the othering of ourselves by enshrining the knowledge held by the people and objects that carry our past, and breed respect for the unrecorded. Black material culture is filled with objects whose complex origins reflect the people they are tied to. Through the language of Black hair and the braid, I explore the idea of the artifact that exists uninhibited by the boundaries of time and space. Using an auto theoretical1 approach to contemplate lived experiences in a Black body, I hold space for objects forged through a process of communal history making and a search for the known and the unknowable. I use materials and processes in relationship with the artistic traditions of the African diaspora to communicate the connection between place and identity. The work draws parallels between the vessel, the body, and women as collectors and keepers of knowledge. The work of the Unbound Archive is to subvert the hierarchy of official history and its system of the valued and the valuable. This reframing identifies and elevates objects, ideals, and cultural practices before they need to be preserved."