Artist: Kachina Leigh
Title: mother/daughter/sister/saint
Attribution: mother/daughter/sister/saint 2021-2022 kachina leigh
Year: 2021 - day 1 of installation
Materials: dresses sewn by artist, embellished with beading, embroidery, silk screening, and encaustic medium on plaster dress forms
Dimensions: variable
Image Statement: Based on a 1938 family photo showing my Great Grandmother, Grandmother and Aunt, I sewed and embellished three dresses using a similar pattern from the 1930s, mixing family lore with the iconography associated with the Saints by the same name to create the imagery on each dress. The work was installed in Campbell, Nebraska; my Grandmother, Aunt and Mother were all born in the house that once sat on this site. The road leading to the installation is a minimum maintenance road, impassible during storms or snow. These women were not saints in the strict sense of the word, but their devotion to family and their stewardship of the land was sincere, reverent, and unwavering. I believe "the ladies", as they have come to be called, appreciate the quiet isolation, enjoying the ability to witness the seasons shift from fall to winter, spring to summer, directly connected to the land on which they lived. This installation is intended to be on site for a full year.