Brandi Simpson's Show in Albania
Brandi Simpson Connects Craft Traditions in a Solo Show in Albania
Photo courtesy of the artist.
Graduate student Brandi Simpson presented her solo exhibition in Albania’s capital Tirana this summer. Her international trip was supported by the grant from Charles T.McDowell Center for Global Studies and the UTA Library Open Initiative Program. Titled Beyond Adornment: A Celebration of Tradition (21 June – 25 July 2024), the exhibition was curated by Sead Kazanxhiu, the founder of Parking Art Gallery at the Ministry of Minority Affairs in Albania who came to UT Arlington with a lecture in September 2023 as our Visiting Artist at the Art & Art History Department.
Brandi Simpson’ practice evolves around the research of traditions of female crafting circles and communities of art making. In preparation for this show, the artist invited minority women of Albania to engage in a collective workshop of doilies making. These objects then formed one of the centerpieces of the exhibition, along with Simpson’s audio installation comprised of record players with glass records that she engraved with the ornaments of doilies. We spoke with Brandi about the evolution of this project, the unearthing of symbolism and bonding through art objects, and her experience with art professionals in Albania.
Brandi, tell us about the process of putting together this exhibition. Did you produce all the work on site during the residency or have you brought any work with you?
I met Sead Kazanxhiu when he came to UTA as a visiting artist in fall 2023. Sead did a studio visit with me, and he expressed how my work reminded him of his home in Albania. He told me that the women in his village made doilies just like the ones I use in my work. It was as though we had found a visual language that reached beyond words. Sead expressed how much he wished he could show my work in Albania. We started emailing each other and I pitched my idea for the exhibition where we could feature the doilies made by the women in both of our communities. The Charles T. McDowell Center for Global Studies, and the UTA Library Open Initiative Program provided funding for this project. I spent months working on the glass pieces, The Sound of Visibility, that I took with me. They are glass records that I embedded with the sound of a heartbeat. I made the rest of the work in Albania using doilies that I took with me and doilies that we made in crafting workshops that I hosted in Tirana.
Tell us more about the mural you created on the wall of the Parking Gallery? Where is the text sourced from?
The text-based mural is called The Keepers of Tradition. It features the names of all the women in my family, and community who have kept the tradition of generational crafting alive, as well as the women who I worked with in Albania. Behind their names are three blue doilies. I wanted to honor them as makers. It was so beautiful watching women bring their families into the space to see what I had made with their doilies and witnessing their surprise and pride when they saw their names in the exhibition.
“Traditions that bond us are stronger than what divides us” – this profound statement of yours in the exhibition catalogue gives comfort and hope. Found and discarded objects take a significant place in your artistic practice and usually function as points for reflection about the shared and internalized experiences, imposed perceptions and unbalanced power dynamics. How important is it for you to articulate the power certain objects hold, even if this power is not evident at first glance?
I was asked by a woman in one of my workshops if I had considered displaying the doilies separately by region the makers were from. That is when I thought of this line "Traditions that bond us are stronger than what divides us." I told her that this project was about showing how much we have in common as a global community of women. I really wanted to use these doilies as a metaphor for women. We are so often overlooked, like the humble doily. I wanted to confront the viewer with a room built entirely of doilies on the walls, sculptures made of doilies, and the sound of the doilies, so they would have no choice but to see them and acknowledge their presence and strength.
What role do colors play in the exhibition? Any symbolism behind it?
I was deliberate in the colors and patterns that I used in the glass records because I wanted the glass to give the impression of woodgrain like the furniture a doily would be used to protect. The other colors in my installation developed organically based on the doilies that I collected. For example, one entire wall of the gallery is covered in a collage of doilies from floor to ceiling. I took great care to place them in a way that would draw the viewer’s eye through the full installation using color to create movement.
During your residency time, have you had a chance to visit any art institutions or museums in Tirana? If so, what touched or surprised you in the exhibitions you saw?
Sead Kazanxhiu took me to many galleries during my visit. He arranged for me to meet the gallerists and other artists. I had the opportunity to visit the Art Institute in Tirana. That was one of my favorite experiences. I got to meet students, and they were so excited to show me their work. They have an art restoration program where the students create traditional frescos and mosaics, then their professors destroy their work, so they have to restore it back to its original state. It was fascinating. There is a rich artistic community in Tirana. The former dictator's mansion is currently being transformed into artist-residency lofts. There is so much public art, and it was truly inspiring.
View exhibition catalogue
