Amidst the future and present there is a memory table

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Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY. Pho…
Amidst the future and present there is a memory table
Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY. Photograph by John Bentham. © Firelei Báez.
Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College. Photograph by John Bentham. © Firelei Báez.
Artist/Maker (American, born Dominican Republic 1981)
Date2013
MediumPigmented abaca, cotton, and linen on abaca base sheet with radiograph opaque ink
DimensionsSheet: 39 3/4 × 60 3/8 in. (101 × 153.4 cm) Frame: 45 1/8 × 65 5/8 × 2 7/8 in. (114.6 × 166.7 × 7.3 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, William G. Roehrick '34 Art Acquisition and Preservation Fund
Object number2016.7
Not on view
DescriptionFirelei Báez made Amidst the future and present there is a memory table at the innovative New York papermaking studio Dieu Donné (see also cat. no. 129). There, she created a series of works that reference the human body, partly inspired by the skin-like qualities of paper itself—a medium she refers to as a “surrogate self.” Her materials informed her iconography, as what she originally intended as landscapes evolved into silhouettes of bodies. Some of the silhouettes reference scrollwork, the elaborate ornamentation that appears in the margins of Persian miniatures and medieval European manuscripts. Born in the Dominican Republic and now based in Miami, Báez incorporates Caribbean folklore into her work and explores the ways in which women of color throughout history have subverted hierarchy and patriarchy in creative ways. She frequently sources images from YouTube videos, such as those showing women twerking (dancing provocatively in a low, bouncing squat) or wilding (participating in bare-knuckled fistfights); she is drawn to these subjects as indicators of antinormative female behavior. The figures that appear in Amidst the future and present there is a memory table have been abstracted through the process of marbling, a traditional papermaking technique embraced by the artist for its ability to incorporate bodily gestures into the form of the work. (SOURCE: Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS, 2017) Created at the Dieu Donne Papermil in New York City.
Collections

Additional Details

Exhibition History 2017
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Innovative Approaches, Honored Traditions: The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Five Years, Highlights from the Permanent Collection," September 9 - December 10, 2017 (cat. no. 131, illus.);

2016
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College). "Pure Pulp: Contemporary Artists Working in Paper at Dieu Donné," February 6 - April 10, 2016 (unnumbered cat., illus.). Traveled to: Atlanta, GA (Williams Museum of Papermaking), June 9 - August 5, 2016; New York, NY (Dedalus Foundation), September 8 - October 16, 2016.
Provenance 2016: Hamilton College (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art), by purchase from Gallery Wendi Norris.
Published References Katherine D. Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS: THE RUTH AND ELMER WELLIN MUSEUM OF ART AT FIVE YEARS, HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION (Clinton, NY: Wellin Museum of Art, 2017), p. 284;

Bridget Donlon, PURE PULP: CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS WORKING IN PAPER AT DIEU DONNÉ (Clinton, NY: Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art; Munich: DelMonico Books-Prestel, 2016), pp. 40, 122, illus.p. 41-43.
© David Kennedy Cutler. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton C…
Mount
David Kennedy Cutler
Date: 2011
Medium: Archival inkjet on Japanese paper, data of compact disks, and pigmented cotton
Object number: 2016.16
© Lorna Simpson. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Clinton, NY. Photog…
Details
Lorna Simpson
Date: 1996
Medium: Portfolio of 21 photogravures with text
Object number: 2016.11
Photograph by David Revette.
Untitled (Woman and daughter with make-up), from the "Kitchen Table Series"
Carrie Mae Weems
Date: 1990 (printed 2010)
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Object number: 2011.5
Photograph by John Bentham.
They Already Got Yo Kids ("Tricked my wisdom with the system that imprisoned my son")
Umar Rashid (Frohawk Two Feathers)
Date: 2013
Medium: Acrylic, ink, coffee, and tea on paper
Object number: 2013.2
© Jamea Richmond-Edwards. Image Courtesy of Art+Culture Projects, Brooklyn, NY. For educational…
7 Mile Fly Girl
Jamea Richmond-Edwards
Date: 2018
Medium: Pigment print with silkscreen diamond dust and gold foil
Object number: 2020.1
Photograph by John Bentham.
The House of Chance and Mischief
Renée Stout
Date: 2008-10
Medium: Acrylic, latex paint, spray paint, plastic rhinestones, wood, glass, metal, varnish, collage, and found objects
Object number: 2016.2
Photograph by Dave Revette
Gerrit Smith, from the series "Abolitionists"
Karen Hampton
Date: 2015
Medium: Dye-sublimation print on polyester twill over archival inkjet print on silk organza, with hand-stitching
Object number: 2015.4
© 2021 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (AR…
Tools
Jacob Lawrence
Date: 1977
Medium: Lithograph
Object number: 2020.2
Photograph by John Bentham.
Untitled [Standing Woman in Yellow Holding a Lotus]
Unknown artist
Date: probably first half of 19th century
Medium: Gouache and gold over white ground on paper
Object number: 1986.26
© Yashua Klos. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton,…
Brick Feather Brick (Your Path is Worn)
Yashua Klos
Date: 2018
Medium: Collage with woodblock prints and graphite on paper
Object number: 2019.1
Photograph by John Bentham.
Hommage à GB WL TSE EP
Dorothy Shakespear
Date: 1937
Medium: Watercolor on paper, mounted on cardboard
Object number: 1996.10
Photograph by John Bentham.
Yakima or Yakama – Not For Me To Say
Wendy Red Star
Date: 2016
Medium: Lithograph with inkjet print
Object number: 2016.18