cash crops: cheryl derricotte
November 1-30, 2021
re.riddle presents, Cash Crops, an online exhibition of new work by Cheryl Derricotte that will run from November 1-30, 2021. This exhibition is the part of re.flect, a program series that spotlights one of the gallery's artists each month. The rotating monthly series offers in-depth access into the respective processes and practices of our global community of artists.
Curatorial Statement
Cash Crops is a new series of work by Cheryl Derricotte that considers the six major American agricultural crops that motivated the transatlantic slave trade from the 1600’s to the 1800’s – tobacco, sugar cane, cotton, rice, coffee and wheat – and the enduring role they play in today’s world. Derricotte portrays the same set of cash crops from two different mediums, glass and paper, resulting in two viscerally divergent and conceptually-rich vantage points. Derricotte’s research-based practice stems from her singular guiding question, “how did we get here?” and the incisive observations of urban landscapes, environmental concerns and socio-political dynamics that follow. By resurfacing historical images and stories that relate to our present reality, her artwork activates public dialogue, heightens our awareness and provides a brave space to open a conversation we might otherwise avoid. “In the [art-viewing] setting,” Derricotte observes, “it is not easy to look away… after all, that’s what we came for, right?
The history of American cash cropping is considered a parallel account of our nation’s economic might and racial inequity. Cash crops were instrumental in building the American economy despite being excruciatingly labor-intensive to produce. Soon after the first African captives were brought to the American colonies in 1619, the plantation market resituated itself around enslavement as the most cost-effective, renewable source of labor. When the transatlantic slave trade was abolished in 1807, over twelve million Africans had been transported to the New World to fuel its economic rise. To what extent does the architectural foundation of our country’s economy have to do with our present-day status quo? In this case specifically, what effect does a reconsideration of cotton, tobacco, sugar cane, or coffee have on our paradigm of racial inequity? Capitalist market and consumer behaviors?
While Derricotte’s glass and paperworks are visually pleasing with a delicate depth of pattern and material, their recontextualization within her related histories pushes the viewer through the threshold of their beauty and into the shadows of a more painful confrontation. The translucent quality of Derricotte’s glassworks enhances the feeling of a past and present vastness and acts as a window into a centuries-long topic regarding our country’s economy and crop fields (Field series). Moreover, she embellishes vintage images of individual plants with hand-embroidery accents, simultaneously underlining their delicate beauty and contentious by-hand labor history (Plant series). This duet of present and past, the collective and the individual sets up the conversation around the life, effects and symbolism of cash crops in the United States.
Programming
Cash Crops is part of re.flect, a program series that spotlights one of the gallery's artists each month. Each show offers in-depth access to the respective processes and practices within the global artistic community. A program will be presented alongside the exhibition that relates to Cheryl Derricotte’s artistic practice. Please join us!
In Conversation: Ashara Ekundayo x Cheryl Derricotte
November 22, 2021
5pm PST/ 7pm CST/ 8pm EST
Join us for an engaging conversation about the role artwork plays in activating public dialogue, heightening our awareness and providing a brave space to open conversations about historical narratives, urban landscapes and socio-political dynamics.
Ashara Ekundayo is a Black feminist, interdisciplinary creative arts leader committed to an intersectional framework of social transformation that expands the influence and impact of arts and culture on racial equity, gender & justice, and environmental literacy and one that necessitates a practice of recognizing joy in the midst of struggle. Working internationally across cultural, spiritual, civic, and social innovation spaces, Ashara embodies a range of roles including independent curator, cultural theologian, artist, creative industries entrepreneur, organizer, mentor, and mother. In 2019 she founded and currently stewards Artist As First Responder, an organization and 6-point philanthropic, interactive art platform that reifies artists whose practices heal communities and save lives. Ashara currently sits on the Advisory Board of the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music and the Global Fund for Women “Artist Changemaker Program.” She has held Fellowships with the U.S. Dept. of State Cultural Affairs Dept., Institute for the Future, Schools Without Borders, Auburn Seminary, and the United African Alliance Community Center in Arusha, Tanzania to name a few. Her current creative projects include partnerships with the Kennedy Center for Social Impact, the Museum of the African Diaspora and Black [Space] Residency, and she also brings her expertise to Chef Bryant Terry’s 4 Color Books as a writer and Cultural Strategist. Ashara lives and works between the Bay Area and her hometown of Detroit, Michigan.
Cheryl Derricotte is a visual artist and her favorite mediums are glass and paper. Originally from Washington, DC, she lives and makes art in San Francisco, CA. Her art has been featured in the New York Times, The Guardian, The San Francisco Chronicle, MerciSF and the San Francisco Business Times. She was awarded the commission to develop a monument to Harriet Tubman at the transit-oriented development Gateway at Millbrae Station, believed to be the first sculptural tribute to the abolitionist in glass. Additional honors include the Black(Space) Artist Residency, Minnesota Street Projects; 2020 YBCA100; This Will Take Time – Oakland Residency; Villa San Francisco/French Consulate Micro-Residency; Windgate Craft Fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center; the Antenna/Paper Machine Residency (New Orleans); San Francisco Individual Artist Commission, the Gardarev Center Fellowship and the Hemera Foundation Tending Space Fellowship for Artists. Glass awards include the the Rick and Val Beck Scholarship for Glass Art and the Alliance for Contemporary Glass’ Visionary Scholarship. Cheryl was an inaugural Emerging Artist at the Museum of the African Diaspora in 2015/2016, on the occasion of the Museum’s 10th Anniversary. Cheryl holds a BA in Urban Affairs (Minor: History), Barnard College, Columbia University; the Master of Regional Planning (MRP), Cornell University and the MFA, California Institute of Integral Studies. She is an active thought leader in the arts. Cheryl serves as the Chief Mindfulness Officer of Crux, a nationwide cooperative of predominantly Black and other underrepresented artists working at the intersection of art and technology through immersive storytelling (AR/VR). She serves as the Professional Development Officer on the Arts & Planning Interest Group of the American Planning Association and she is a member of the Strategic Planning Committee of the San Francisco Center for the Book.
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