While I was in Virginia at OSGF last year attending an artist’s residence, I learned through research that 10,455 enslaved people in Fauquier County, where OSGF is located, were emancipated upon the end of the Civil War. It was shocking to learn of the sheer number of enslaved who were living in this county, which is not even the largest, nor the county with the most enslaved people in Virginia.
More sobering was considering the thousands who were released with only the clothes on their backs and their wits as their own. Fauquier 10,455 is a visualization of the number of emancipated souls. It is also witness to a meditation that took place as each dot was stamped individually onto the silk organza, representing an individual freed. Fauquier 10,455 is a one-of-a-kind book.
Fauquier 10,455, open
Searching/Finding is a unique scroll which visualizes the accumulated data from researching the history of OSGF. Layered mull (a heavily starched cotton fabric used to reinforce book spines) features a cut and stitched outline of the two adjoining tracts of OSGF, and names of the enslaved interspersed.
Searching/Finding