This story was originally published by ArtsATL.
Precious Lovell’s “The Ties That Bind” and “Ex-Domestication” at Hammonds House Museum are two distinct exhibitions, but they share the artist’s central themes: textiles and history. They also share an overarching connective title: “The Fabric of Our Lives.”
Lovell’s love for cloth and fabrics began when she was a child, inspired by the women in her life who sewed, stitched and embroidered — whether it was her mother who made clothes for her or her great-grandmother who made crazy quilts.
“It’s something I thought was really beautiful. These women were very skilled. I picked it up naturally and it was encouraged,” the artist, 65, told ArtsATL recently. “It informed my life and what I wanted to do.”
Credit: Photo by Sally Van Gorder
Credit: Photo by Sally Van Gorder
For her last two years of high school, Lovell attended the North Carolina School of the Arts, where she took visual arts courses and always referenced cloth or stitching in her work, either directly or indirectly.
In 1981, she graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a bachelor’s degree in fashion design and worked in the industry in New York City for 20 years. She taught fashion courses in the Middle East for Virginia Commonwealth, then in South Korea and later in Africa as a volunteer.
“It became my passion,” said Lovell, who lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. “I had always made art, but I started to make it more seriously, and that’s when I started exhibiting.”
Lovell’s travels have taken her to more than 40 countries, exposing her to different fabrics, clothing and techniques. The more she saw how people around the world worked with cloth and clothing and what it meant in different cultures, the more excited she became about working with textiles. “I tell my friends that I’m a textile geek, a cloth and clothing geek,” Lovell said. “I love what clothing can say.”
Credit: Courtesy of Hammonds House Museum
Credit: Courtesy of Hammonds House Museum
The idea for one of the Hammonds House exhibits, “The Ties That Bind,” came to Lovell when she was working on a project in graduate school about women and enslavement and how enslavers excused their actions of slave rape by claiming their victims were animals. As she researched aprons for the project, she came across information on African modesty aprons, which women created out of various materials to cover themselves and retain their dignity.
She decided to counter enslavers’ excuses and perception of women by creating modesty aprons for her female ancestors. She tucked the idea away in a folder for several years. It ultimately became “The Ties That Bind” exhibit.
“That’s what it stemmed from — my countering the idea that women of African descent deserved to be raped,” Lovell said. “Those are not the women I know.”
Twelve of the 15 aprons in the exhibit honor members of her own family. The remaining three honor her known and unknown African American ancestors, as well as women and friends who have influenced her. All have some reference to traditional African modesty aprons, which were made from a variety of materials, including beads, leaves or metal.
The exhibit includes an apron that represents her own love of textiles using old scraps of denim, her favorite color, indigo, and an Adinkra symbol called Ananse Ntontan, which represents wisdom, creativity and the complexities of life.
Another apron is for her maternal grandmother. It depicts a long braid, the feature that attracted her grandfather to her. One apron depicts an elephant’s head, which represents the top of the cane her paternal great-grandmother would brandish when she wanted Lovell and her cousins to stop running around the house. Lovell also created an apron for her great aunt, who was the first woman to be ordained as an elder in North Carolina.
Some of the stories behind the aprons represent a difficult truth, Lovell said, but the purpose of her art is clear: to honor people of African descent.
Credit: Photo by Sally Van Gorder
Credit: Photo by Sally Van Gorder
Meanwhile, “Ex-Domestication” tells the story of the impact of slavery on the United States — past, present and future. “These 14 pieces, in my humble opinion, are the most important collection I have done so far,” Lovell said. “Although the exhibit is reflective of the past, it makes a clear line to the present and may be a cautionary tale for the future.”
The piece from the exhibit that she hopes will leave an imprint in the viewer’s mind is “Indelibly Seared.” It features two commissioned branding irons with the words “BLM” for Black Lives Matter, an Adinkra symbol that stands for love and the words “Brand New Day” crocheted in cotton yarn. The irons were the work of a master blacksmith in New Orleans and his apprentices.
“I think that the beauty of our ancestors and what they endured and survived allows us to be here today,” Lovell said. “We have a responsibility to stay aware of just how slippery the slope is. We should do everything to make sure we work toward a different future.”
The exhibits are the first to be curated by the museum’s new artistic chair, Halima Taha, and are on display through April 14.
EXHIBITION PREVIEW
Precious Lovell: “The Ties That Bind” and “Ex-Domestication”
Through April 14 at Hammonds House Museum. Adults, $10; seniors (62 and up), $7; students, $5; free for 12 and under. 503 Peeples St. SW, Atlanta.
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Lydia X. McCoy was a newspaper reporter for 15 years before moving into a career in the communications industry.
Credit: ArtsATL
Credit: ArtsATL
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