Artist Talk | MIGRATION | Cheryl Derricotte
Artist Cheryl Derricotte talks about her artwork "The Return: CA Edition 1995-2000" included in this group show at Vessel Gallery's new location 480 23rd Street, Oakland, CA.
MIGRATION - February 15 - March 21, 2020
The Return: CA Edition 1995–2000 (2020) | Map, graphite, archival inks | 36h x 48w in
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The Return: CA Edition 1995-2000, visually depicts the migration of Black people away from California. Using available data from Brookings Institution author William Frey, coupled with a large-scale map, this visual art project depicts a snapshot in time of what is being called the Reverse Great Migration. Black people who left the state of CA during the period 1995-2000 are identified in green ink on a wall-sized paper map. Instead of numbers, suitcases symbolize the moves. Each green suitcase represents a “one;” thus twenty-seven people moving would be rendered with two suitcases over seven suitcases. (A green suitcase with a / through it represents a zero). When all of the moves are rendered in this manner and considered together, the resulting work is abstract, reminiscent of hieroglyphics while using the notation style of binary code. For the first time since 1965, this period marked the fact that more Black people migrated out, rather than migrated in. Three California cities, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, were among the top 10 metropolitan areas with net losses of Black people. Even more telling, the majority of these Black people migrated to the South. This return to the South mirrors a broader trend in the United States since 1965: more Black people have migrated South than any place else in the US. This trend continued into the following decade and completed a reversal of the original Great Migration. From 2005 to 2010, the average result was an annual gain for the South of 66,000” Black people.
BIO
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. She has an extensive background in the arts and community development. Cheryl holds the Master of Fine Arts from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), the Master of Regional Planning from Cornell University and a B.A. in Urban Affairs from Barnard College, Columbia University. Recent awards include the San Francisco Individual Artist Commission; the Puffin Foundation Grant, and Antenna Paper Machine Residency (all 2019/2020). She is also the recipient of the Hemera Foundation Tending Space Fellowship for Artists; the Rick and Val Beck Scholarship for Glass; Emerging Artist at the Museum of the African Diaspora; Gardarev Center Fellow; Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass’ Visionary Scholarship and a D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities/ National Endowment for the Arts Artist Fellowship Grant. Cheryl is an active thought leader in the arts. She serves as the Secretary, (aka The Minister of Information), for Three Point Nine Art Collective, a group of Black artists who live and make art in San Francisco, and she is also the Chief Mindfulness Officer of Crux, a nationwide cooperative of Black artists working at the intersection of art and technology through immersive storytelling (VR).
Artist, Cheryl Derricotte & Vessel Gallery Curator, Lonnie Lee
MIGRATION Exhibit Slides Show
