Day Garden

Copied Lauren Austin, Day Garden, 2019, commercial cotton fabric, beads, hand dyed by artist fabric, textile paint, and ink, 51 1⁄2 × 52 in. (130.8 × 132.1 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Carolyn L. Mazloomi, 2023.20.3, © 2019, Lauren A. Austin

Artwork Details

Title
Day Garden
Artist
Date
2019
Location
Dimensions
51 1⁄2 × 52 in. (130.8 × 132.1 cm)
Copyright
© 2019, Lauren A. Austin
Credit Line
Gift of Carolyn L. Mazloomi
Mediums
Mediums Description
commercial cotton fabric, beads, hand dyed by artist fabric, textile paint, and ink
Classifications
Subjects
  • Landscape — garden
  • Animal — bird
  • Figure female
Object Number
2023.20.3
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2023.20.3

Artwork Description

Lauren Austin 
born 1959, Boston, MA
resides Altamonte Springs, FL 

Day Garden
2019
commercial cotton fabric, beads, hand dyed by artist fabric, textile paint, and ink

 

Ivy frames this quilt and entwines with a woman’s hair as she holds a pothos leaf. She looks admiringly at the potted plants before her. 

Laura Austin remembers her grandfather’s frustration at not being able to grow collard greens and okra in New York after he moved there from the South, which first taught her about soil. Through the adinkra symbol Funtunfunefu Denkyemfunefu, or Unity in Diversity (featured in a brown square on the left side of the quilt), Austin shares the lesson of interdependence in nature. The symbol is composed of two conjoined crocodiles whose embrace is key to their survival. Austin notes that Black communities have historically developed this type of relationship with nature, even as many have experienced the brunt of environmental racism and dispossession. 

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Carolyn L. Mazloomi, 2023.20.3, © 2019, Lauren A. Austin


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