Ebony Patterson’s installation Invisible Presence: Bling Memories is at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle as part of the In Plain Sight exhibition. The work draws on funerary rituals and visual traditions to commemorate the lives of children who died by violent means with bedazzled and tasselled fabric coffins. The sculptures are both museum and ceremonial pieces that are paraded in Trinidad and Jamaica as performances of remembrance and protest. The exhibition runs through April 26th, revealing stories by 14 artists who focus on immigration, the environment and power imbalances that are often repressed or invisible.
Ebony Patterson doesn’t romp. In January, Jamaica’s hottest artist received a United States Artists Fellowship Award in the visual arts.