Iris Wright
(xe/xem/xyr) is a transdisciplinary artist who makes books, wearable sculptures, and many objects in-between to investigate failures in communication. These failures have included misrepresentations, archival absences, censorship, mistranslations, contextual rewrites, and lost traditions. Xe grew up in northern Illinois, graduated with honors from Brown University, and now teaches book arts in addition to maintaining an art practice. With xyr artist collective abcpvd (Art Book Collective, Providence), xe organizes group art shows and events to connect people through tactile and participatory artwork. See more of xyr work at iriswrite.com.A major theme of my work is failure in communication.

As I conceptualized this installation and sewed its artworks, I thought about communicating with ancestors and what is lost in the gap between disparate times. I researched tactile traditions that are in danger of extinction when expediency is valued over care. Especially in this moment of uncertainty about the role of new, quickly advancing technologies, we are likely to lose cultural knowledge faster than we realize its value. These losses might include techniques only passed down through in-person study, willingness to seek answers without digital assistance, patience.

For me, loss manifests in wanting to call my great grandmothers on the phone to ask them for quilting advice. They have already passed on, but I keep listening for advice from my ancestors. I am uncertain I interpret their messages accurately. Between their time and mine is a rift greater than physical distance. What is lost in translation?