A Party for Sojourner
Artwork photos courtesy of the artist
by Nastassja E. Swift
Wool, tulle, natural dyes, 20 x 15 x 1 inches. 2019.
GLB-2020-1
Acquired into the GLB Art Collection July 2020.
“It occurred to me that perhaps that white feminists, no less than white women generally, cannot imagine black women have vaginas.” - Alice Walker (In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens, 1983)
Judy Chicago’s “The Dinner Party”, comprised of 39 place settings, attempts to commemorate important women in history. Yet it, like much of first-wave feminism during that time, fails to intentionally include women of color, as Sojourner and Sacagawea are the only two non-white attendees to the party. Not to mention Sojourner’s plate is the only of the setting that isn’t quite a “creatively imagined vagina,” rather a merging of African masks. As a way of acknowledging Sojourner’s womanhood, in the context of “The Dinner Party,” this piece – constructed of Black female faces in different tones – gives Sojourner the party that she was vaguely a part of in 1979.
Nastassja Swift is a visual artist holding a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art from Virginia Commonwealth University with a major in Painting & Printmaking and a minor in Craft & Material Studies. She is the owner and artist of D for Dolls, an online collection of handmade needle felted figures. Outside of being a doll maker, she works with fiber, audio, performance, and film within her studio practice. Nastassja is the recent recipient of a Virginia Commission of the Arts Fellowship in Craft. Her work is currently on display in a group exhibition at The Colored Girls Museum in Philadelphia and will be exhibited in Quirk Gallery’s Inaugural show in Charlottesville. Her short film “Remembering Her Homecoming,” premiered at the Afrikana Independent Film Festival this Fall, and screened at the Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville and Current Art Fair in Richmond. She has participated in several national and international residencies and exhibitions, including her first solo exhibit in Doha, Qatar in 2016, and fellowships at the Vermont Studio Center and MASS MoCA.
Nastassja is currently living and working in Virginia.
Photo courtesy of the artist