I began my practice by sifting through archives, specifically records of the African American diaspora rooted in the Carolinas and stretching northward to Detroit during the Great Migration. These documents and photographs are more than historical evidence; they are fragments of lived experience that I work to reassemble. By manipulating and re-presenting images, I create a place for these stories to exist in the present, a visual ground where memory and history intersect.
My process is both research and ritual. A multitude of mediums, such as ceramics and fiber, allow me to translate archival fragments into tactile form, shaping vessels and textiles that hold questions of ancestry, displacement, and resilience. Much of my artwork is rooted in answering familial questions and seeking to find a sense of contentment in the “unknown”. Each piece becomes a way to process inherited traumas while tracing connections across generations. In bringing together records, images, and material, I am to honor journeys often silenced, and to carve space for dialogue between the past and my current unfolding present.
Carissa Hodges 