WEBVTT 00:00:00.150 --> 00:00:02.580 - [Tau] Keep working on that for a little bit 00:00:02.580 --> 00:00:05.643 and then I'm gonna start on my thing. 00:00:11.379 --> 00:00:12.212 Okay. 00:00:14.190 --> 00:00:16.560 It's really easy to lose yourself 00:00:16.560 --> 00:00:19.277 within the making part of things. 00:00:19.277 --> 00:00:22.587 (eccentric effects playing) 00:00:25.440 --> 00:00:27.090 - [Camera Assistant] One A take one mark. 00:00:32.520 --> 00:00:35.520 - [Assistant] See if it's right and then I can tweak it. 00:00:35.520 --> 00:00:36.353 - [Tau] Yeah. 00:00:36.353 --> 00:00:40.350 I have a very deep kind of interior private life. 00:00:40.350 --> 00:00:42.425 I've been that way since I was a child. 00:00:42.425 --> 00:00:43.465 ♪ Are you okay? ♪ 00:00:43.465 --> 00:00:46.132 (ambient music) 00:00:48.390 --> 00:00:50.247 ♪ Sit down ♪ 00:00:50.247 --> 00:00:53.133 - [Tau] Had a hard time speaking, intentionally quiet. 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:58.350 And I also really struggled with communicating 00:00:58.350 --> 00:01:00.115 and getting my ideas out. 00:01:00.115 --> 00:01:03.532 (ambient woodwind music) 00:01:12.060 --> 00:01:16.563 Sculpture has been really important to that interior self. 00:01:17.700 --> 00:01:20.703 - [Assistant] I love it. It looks really good. 00:01:21.810 --> 00:01:23.310 Oh yeah. You did a good job on that. 00:01:23.310 --> 00:01:24.990 We're trying to do invisible around-- 00:01:24.990 --> 00:01:27.210 - [Tau] It's seamless. Yeah, it's beautiful. 00:01:27.210 --> 00:01:28.043 - [Assistant] Yeah. 00:01:30.210 --> 00:01:31.860 Sorry, I'm trying to pin this down. 00:01:31.860 --> 00:01:33.780 - [Tau] I'm making my own interpretations 00:01:33.780 --> 00:01:36.813 of some of the things that I absorb. 00:01:38.280 --> 00:01:40.170 The exciting thing about fabric, 00:01:40.170 --> 00:01:43.530 when it's not brand new it has character, it's mysterious. 00:01:43.530 --> 00:01:45.441 I love the imperfection 00:01:45.441 --> 00:01:48.046 and I love wondering about their secret lives. 00:01:49.800 --> 00:01:52.350 We use every single piece of scrap. 00:01:52.350 --> 00:01:53.970 The floor gets swept at the end of the day 00:01:53.970 --> 00:01:56.070 but then we collect the little pieces. 00:01:56.070 --> 00:01:58.560 When we accumulate enough of them, 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:00.600 make new fabrics out of them. 00:02:00.600 --> 00:02:02.310 So each new sculpture has a piece 00:02:02.310 --> 00:02:04.173 of an older one embedded in it. 00:02:05.190 --> 00:02:08.900 They share shreds of the same memory and the same truth. 00:02:08.900 --> 00:02:12.650 (eccentric percussion music) 00:02:13.560 --> 00:02:16.410 I'm specifically interested in the masks as objects 00:02:16.410 --> 00:02:20.430 which are used directly in the process of communicating 00:02:20.430 --> 00:02:24.423 with a spirit or a God or sometimes an ancestor. 00:02:25.320 --> 00:02:28.710 I began looking at Yoruba masks, 00:02:28.710 --> 00:02:31.110 ceremonial ritual masks 00:02:31.110 --> 00:02:33.780 and thinking about their functions. 00:02:33.780 --> 00:02:38.100 The wearer of the mask comes with a message. 00:02:38.100 --> 00:02:39.840 They're able to deliver the message 00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:42.640 when the mask is possessing them. 00:02:45.047 --> 00:02:47.964 (scissors cutting) 00:02:50.319 --> 00:02:53.236 (scissors cutting) 00:02:56.388 --> 00:02:59.138 (machine sewing) 00:03:06.919 --> 00:03:11.850 (scissors cutting) (electric piano music) 00:03:11.850 --> 00:03:16.000 A lot of Black creation is an upcycling 00:03:16.890 --> 00:03:21.303 regardless of a lack thereof, regardless of an access to. 00:03:23.220 --> 00:03:27.810 I would position myself in the DIY kind of nature, 00:03:27.810 --> 00:03:32.202 taking things as they are and letting them shine. 00:03:32.202 --> 00:03:37.202 (electric piano music) (faint voice messages playing) 00:03:45.760 --> 00:03:47.490 There's a sense of calm when I'm here alone 00:03:47.490 --> 00:03:48.750 with the objects as well, 00:03:48.750 --> 00:03:52.710 the way that they kind of preside over the studio. 00:03:52.710 --> 00:03:54.457 I feel held by them. 00:03:54.457 --> 00:03:58.374 (ambient electric piano music) 00:04:00.390 --> 00:04:02.280 During the process of making the artworks, 00:04:02.280 --> 00:04:05.010 there's sort of a yearning feeling that comes off of them. 00:04:05.010 --> 00:04:05.843 I don't know. 00:04:05.843 --> 00:04:08.223 I would say it's like a need for recognition. 00:04:11.130 --> 00:04:14.910 When you spend so much time fixated on touching 00:04:14.910 --> 00:04:19.890 and handling, sometimes swaddled in the material even, 00:04:19.890 --> 00:04:22.263 you're kind of bonded to it in a way. 00:04:27.990 --> 00:04:31.359 And everything I make is part of this process of 00:04:31.359 --> 00:04:34.309 showing them I've heard you 00:04:34.309 --> 00:04:38.767 and these are the symbols that I've made in response to you, 00:04:38.767 --> 00:04:40.733 and you're being seen. 00:04:44.430 --> 00:04:46.350 The stories are not really new. 00:04:46.350 --> 00:04:49.080 They're being interpreted differently. 00:04:49.080 --> 00:04:51.150 The materials are not new. 00:04:51.150 --> 00:04:52.680 They're now contributing themselves 00:04:52.680 --> 00:04:56.212 in a different form and 00:04:56.212 --> 00:04:58.475 this is really wonderful. 00:04:58.475 --> 00:05:00.834 (ambient electric piano music)