“Rose B. Simpson: ‘Dream House’" | Art21 "Extended Play”

WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.417
(soft music)

00:00:06.848 --> 00:00:10.015
(soft ethereal music)

00:00:12.958 --> 00:00:16.200
- You know when you have
dreams that you're in a house,

00:00:16.200 --> 00:00:18.363
it's often the parts of your psyche.

00:00:21.060 --> 00:00:23.430
And the different rooms
are different places

00:00:23.430 --> 00:00:25.507
in your mind and your spirit.

00:00:25.507 --> 00:00:28.613
(soft ethereal music)

00:00:28.613 --> 00:00:33.150
A reoccurring place that
represents the parts of ourselves

00:00:33.150 --> 00:00:35.643
or different times of our lives.

00:00:35.643 --> 00:00:39.570
(soft ethereal music)

00:00:39.570 --> 00:00:42.690
As we come to the rooms in this exhibit,

00:00:42.690 --> 00:00:44.910
your shadow is cast on the wall,

00:00:44.910 --> 00:00:47.790
and we begin with the
awareness of our bodies

00:00:47.790 --> 00:00:49.800
and our impact in that space.

00:00:49.800 --> 00:00:52.967
(soft ethereal music)

00:00:59.220 --> 00:01:01.906
I would ask people to enter into the space

00:01:01.906 --> 00:01:04.120
with the kind of reverence
that we would enter

00:01:04.120 --> 00:01:07.045
into our own psychological spaces,

00:01:07.045 --> 00:01:10.563
that we would navigate
our own internal spaces.

00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:13.831
Even if that sensitivity

00:01:13.831 --> 00:01:17.561
isn't a comfortable neural pathway,

00:01:17.561 --> 00:01:18.665
we can build one.

00:01:18.665 --> 00:01:20.091
This is how we start.

00:01:20.091 --> 00:01:23.258
(soft ethereal music)

00:01:37.560 --> 00:01:38.393
Cool.

00:01:39.600 --> 00:01:40.590
Yes.

00:01:40.590 --> 00:01:43.410
Start with a little dash of orange.

00:01:43.410 --> 00:01:47.070
I didn't know about the
Fabric Workshop before.

00:01:47.070 --> 00:01:49.492
I was familiar with some
of their past projects,

00:01:49.492 --> 00:01:51.730
but I didn't know the
whole scope of this place.

00:01:51.730 --> 00:01:53.650
I'm just gonna keep going.
- Keep going.

00:01:53.650 --> 00:01:56.244
- Just give a shape and I'll make it.
- That's perfect.

00:01:56.244 --> 00:01:58.800
- They were just inviting
me to play, right?

00:01:58.800 --> 00:02:01.936
They were like, what in
your practice do you feel

00:02:01.936 --> 00:02:04.443
you don't really get to do as much?

00:02:05.550 --> 00:02:07.170
Coming from Santa Clara,

00:02:07.170 --> 00:02:09.600
I've only sort of played
around with fabric

00:02:09.600 --> 00:02:10.863
for ceremonial stuff.

00:02:12.150 --> 00:02:13.770
You can't participate

00:02:13.770 --> 00:02:16.200
or have what you're supposed
to wear for ceremony

00:02:16.200 --> 00:02:17.970
unless you make it yourself,

00:02:17.970 --> 00:02:20.943
and so most people in the
tribe know how to sew.

00:02:22.950 --> 00:02:25.473
Oh, dope, I like that one a lot.

00:02:26.760 --> 00:02:27.750
Ah!

00:02:27.750 --> 00:02:29.627
Okay, is it okay if I chop 'em?

00:02:29.627 --> 00:02:30.810
- Yeah, chop them.

00:02:30.810 --> 00:02:33.093
- This is like the funnest ever.

00:02:33.930 --> 00:02:36.153
This is like Rose's bliss.

00:02:37.947 --> 00:02:40.260
(soft ethereal music)

00:02:40.260 --> 00:02:44.490
This show, it's like
sifting through your world

00:02:44.490 --> 00:02:47.133
to find what is delicious and what isn't.

00:02:48.450 --> 00:02:51.450
I wanna just shake it and
all the other stuff come out

00:02:51.450 --> 00:02:53.120
and only the good stuff left.

00:02:53.120 --> 00:02:55.887
(soft ethereal music)
(machine whirring)

00:03:04.830 --> 00:03:06.697
All right. What have we here?

00:03:08.173 --> 00:03:11.340
(soft ethereal music)

00:03:21.030 --> 00:03:24.056
So cool how it hardens up.

00:03:24.056 --> 00:03:25.170
This is perfect.

00:03:25.170 --> 00:03:27.284
I couldn't imagine a better morning.

00:03:27.284 --> 00:03:30.451
(soft ethereal music)

00:03:33.210 --> 00:03:36.270
I've invested so much outside of myself,

00:03:36.270 --> 00:03:40.113
like I'm very much, I think,
giving my energy away.

00:03:41.670 --> 00:03:45.150
This is a prayer that my life changes

00:03:45.150 --> 00:03:49.290
and that I can make space for
the things I value for myself,

00:03:49.290 --> 00:03:51.810
and those aesthetics that I value

00:03:51.810 --> 00:03:53.920
are not just going out there in the world,

00:03:53.920 --> 00:03:57.000
that they're coming back to
me and to my lived spaces.

00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:00.557
(soft ethereal music)

00:04:00.557 --> 00:04:02.760
I woke up from a dream this morning

00:04:02.760 --> 00:04:05.420
that my clay had seeds in it.

00:04:08.550 --> 00:04:10.320
- [Producer] Was that a scary dream?

00:04:10.320 --> 00:04:11.510
- No, it was like...

00:04:14.880 --> 00:04:16.980
I don't know, the metaphor is interesting.

00:04:20.104 --> 00:04:22.860
I really like listening to my dreams.

00:04:22.860 --> 00:04:26.662
Lots and lots of journeys,
like walking this path

00:04:26.662 --> 00:04:29.722
that's like a familiar place.

00:04:29.722 --> 00:04:32.889
(soft ethereal music)

00:04:36.830 --> 00:04:39.270
When I travel, the first thing I think is,

00:04:39.270 --> 00:04:41.580
geez, I wonder what this place looked like

00:04:41.580 --> 00:04:46.580
before it was Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

00:04:46.740 --> 00:04:49.110
Like, who were the indigenous people?

00:04:49.110 --> 00:04:51.712
What did the land feel like

00:04:51.712 --> 00:04:55.650
and what were the languages
spoken and how did that sound?

00:04:55.650 --> 00:04:56.760
I always think that,

00:04:56.760 --> 00:05:01.293
and you can fall into
a really deep sadness.

00:05:04.491 --> 00:05:07.893
And I can hold space for that
and be like, yes, I'm sad,

00:05:08.970 --> 00:05:12.370
and I'm always really sad and
it's always really complicated

00:05:13.890 --> 00:05:15.483
and it's like, yeah, and.

00:05:16.410 --> 00:05:19.740
It hurts, and it's also now in the present

00:05:19.740 --> 00:05:22.914
and we can find incredibly
beautiful things.

00:05:22.914 --> 00:05:26.081
(soft ethereal music)

00:05:28.110 --> 00:05:31.825
We give baskets with
gifts in the community.

00:05:31.825 --> 00:05:34.620
Like if you do something nice
for somebody, you get baskets

00:05:34.620 --> 00:05:37.128
and then you'll hang it up in your house,

00:05:37.128 --> 00:05:39.990
and then if you need to
gift, then you have baskets.

00:05:39.990 --> 00:05:42.951
So it keeps getting kind of moved around.

00:05:42.951 --> 00:05:46.822
(soft ethereal music)

00:05:46.822 --> 00:05:49.500
Some elders will have their whole ceiling

00:05:49.500 --> 00:05:51.241
just covered in baskets.

00:05:51.241 --> 00:05:54.408
(soft ethereal music)

00:05:55.710 --> 00:05:58.890
Your worth is based on
how much you can give

00:05:58.890 --> 00:06:01.340
and how you're recognized
for the gifts you give.

00:06:03.720 --> 00:06:07.249
We remove our shoes and we
can sit with each other.

00:06:07.249 --> 00:06:12.177
And above us are paper bowls
that have stars in them

00:06:12.177 --> 00:06:14.759
that create the ceiling of guidance.

00:06:14.759 --> 00:06:19.020
And then below us are pillows
that have stars on them.

00:06:19.020 --> 00:06:23.100
And so we're like... the comfort
of guidance is holding us

00:06:23.100 --> 00:06:25.381
to give us a place to connect.

00:06:25.381 --> 00:06:28.548
(soft ethereal music)

00:06:36.900 --> 00:06:39.870
The layers of the rooms in this exhibit

00:06:39.870 --> 00:06:44.870
are very much about boundaries
and how much I share

00:06:44.870 --> 00:06:46.645
and how much I don't share.

00:06:46.645 --> 00:06:51.645
(soft ethereal music)

00:06:55.278 --> 00:06:57.932
I wanted people to see what
the walls were made out of,

00:06:57.932 --> 00:07:01.290
which also provides an
incredible opportunity

00:07:01.290 --> 00:07:04.015
to feel like you're in between the walls.

00:07:04.961 --> 00:07:08.343
And it is like entering into
layers of the subconscious.

00:07:10.560 --> 00:07:12.210
Then there was this deeper space

00:07:12.210 --> 00:07:14.523
that you can only see a section of.

00:07:15.990 --> 00:07:18.911
And there's actually parts of
the room no one will ever see.

00:07:18.911 --> 00:07:21.668
(soft ethereal music)

00:07:30.861 --> 00:07:35.520
My work is so much about giving back self

00:07:35.520 --> 00:07:40.048
or consciousness to things
that we have deemed lifeless.

00:07:40.048 --> 00:07:43.555
(soft ethereal music)

00:07:43.555 --> 00:07:46.950
There are three masks in the work room

00:07:46.950 --> 00:07:48.350
and in that sort of pressure,

00:07:48.350 --> 00:07:50.820
you're sitting in the hot
seat, you're being watched

00:07:50.820 --> 00:07:55.020
by more than we would ever
know, and that's supportive.

00:07:55.020 --> 00:07:59.520
It's also probably a little
bit critical at times, right?

00:07:59.520 --> 00:08:02.680
But how do you act when you know you have

00:08:03.690 --> 00:08:07.083
this community that's larger
than what we perceive?

00:08:08.915 --> 00:08:10.980
We're on this grind, right?

00:08:10.980 --> 00:08:13.032
And it goes and goes and goes.

00:08:13.032 --> 00:08:16.199
(soft ethereal music)

00:08:20.070 --> 00:08:21.720
It's not necessarily a bad thing,

00:08:21.720 --> 00:08:24.990
it's actually the
deliciousness of life, right?

00:08:24.990 --> 00:08:25.823
This is it.

00:08:28.942 --> 00:08:30.600
I wouldn't be doing this work

00:08:30.600 --> 00:08:33.371
if it wasn't the thing that
I needed to learn the most.

00:08:33.371 --> 00:08:35.542
(soft ethereal music)

00:08:35.542 --> 00:08:38.410
And so everything that I do like this

00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:42.292
hopefully is tipping the scale.

00:08:42.292 --> 00:08:46.290
Every rock on this side where
my life becomes more conscious

00:08:46.290 --> 00:08:50.455
and more intentional and more prayerful.

00:08:50.455 --> 00:08:52.260
(soft ethereal music)

00:08:52.260 --> 00:08:53.103
It's my goal.

00:08:54.600 --> 00:08:55.617
It's my dream.

00:08:55.617 --> 00:08:58.384
(soft ethereal music)