Found Myself In My Grandmother's Closet — From Philly (2023)
The connections between ways of dress, cultural significance and societal assumption is nothing new — especially when considering the ways in which dress influences ideas around respectability, ritual and heritage within segements of Black America.
“What’s a memory you have with one clothing item that is or once was in your closet?”
This question was posed to three family members — my grandmother, Sandra Moon Hightower my grandfather, Taylor Hightower Jr. & my uncle, Taylor Hightower III. With the aim to explore the complexities of Black experiences post the Great Migration while uplifting stories of the spectacularly ordinary, each story was transcribed onto the surface of each garment, with the entirety of the stories being housed on the inside.
Thank you: Sandra Olivia Moon Hightower, Taylor Hightower Jr. & Taylor Hightower III.
Dimensions: available upon request.
Medium: Cotton twill and embroidery.
Portraits by Rey Londres.
Documentation by Dougal Henken.
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