Millhands
2021
Appalachian red clay, Joe Pye Weed bast, cotton string, unbleached abaca
In 2001 UNCC professors Tyrel Moore and Gerald Ingalls conducted an inventory of textile mills in the Charlotte region. Using archived insurance maps they identified 118 mills in this seven county region; more than a quarter were located in Gaston, Mecklenburg and Cabarrus counties. These mills were established during the 1880s to the 1920s and were a part of a rapid Southern industrial expansion. Mills advertised in Appalachia for workers and news of jobs and opportunity spread by way of mouth.
Moore and Ingalls write that the textile mill economy imprinted in the region in such a way that it is still "a direct threat to the continued existence of open, rural farmland"; the mills " acted as building blocks that gave much needed momentum to an urban forming process that heretofore had proceeded only deliberately." This lure of opportunity continues to drain capital and culture from the Appalachian region, encroach on the rural Piedmont, and feed the rural-urban divide.
out of appalachia
2021
Appalachian red clay, cotton string, bleached abaca
This was created as a study for Millhands.
the geography of nowhere
2020
abaca, salvaged cotton string, wild clay stains
Geography of nowhere references latitudinal and longitudinal maps and tied quilts.