MILLICENT KENNEDY STUDIOS

It’s a common inclination to keep things that no longer serve us. Trinkets that bring back the memory of someone gone, or a time that was bitter or sweet, or both. These ties to the past are still with us because they are teaching us, they have shown us proof of how we have grown, what we can endure, and how temporary some moments are. This is a profoundly powerful purpose, but once it’s been served, there is no need to have to hold onto things that bring you pain, they can be acknowledged, and let go. 

In the community workshop What We Kept, artist Millicent Kennedy hosts donors, who volunteer to share stories and be interviewed about items that they have held onto and decide to donate for the making of a larger artwork. This is a community extension of an ongoing series in the artist’s practice. For years Kennedy has taken abandoned or broken items, and quilted them into fabric, creating a shroud that preserves, buries, and gives them new life.