Tawny Chatmon | Artist

Remnants / Keep Watch Over Her as if She Were Your Own, 2023

Tawny Chatmon:

Over the years, I have become incredibly aware of my own growth. I am not who I was when I was twenty years old, I am not who I was when I was thirty years old, and I am not even the same person I was six months ago. With each circumstance in my life that could drag me backward or propel me forward, when given a choice to wither or bloom, I have mostly chosen growth. What is more, I am subconsciously yet desperately attempting to shed the pieces of each version of myself that are not beneficial to me or others during this process. And while each girl or woman I once was has been my teacher and contributed to the individual I will eventually become before I take my last breath, deconstruction and reconstruction of self have occurred each time. And so, I question, isn't evolution and growth the primary objective of every living thing?

Lauryn Hill said, "Anything that is not growing is dead," and it seems that instinctively, as humans, we understand that once something is born or created, it is meant to evolve and grow. If this is true, it would mean that our world is slowly dying. As many move to propel society forward in whatever way possible, others insist on pulling us back while holding tight to outdated ideals and decrees that never have served us as a whole. In contemplating what the world I wish for my children, my family, and us all looks like, it feels so far from the reality of what we are living. Yet, I remain optimistic. And while I now have a broader understanding that all things of the past have been passed down in some way, moral and immoral, noble and wicked, heirlooms, knowledge, traditions, habits, genetics, and lessons; I also understand that some things just can not be taken with us into our future.

In this series, I have applied relics of my past painted works, cut into tiny pieces, to construct garments representing multiple significances. First, to honor our ancestors and those before us who passed down their cherished belongings and teachings as a means of survival. Second, to acknowledge that we can break free of past beliefs, customs, and traumas that do not serve us. Last, we must look to deconstruct systems of the past to assist us in reconstructing a more promising future.