ARTS Southeast is pleased to host SIERRA KING in the on::View residency from
MARCH 13th - APRIL 4th, 2025
About the Project
“Since 2016, I have most consistently documented, preserved and archived the work and livelihoods of writer and director Ebony Blanding and muralist and printmaker Jasmine Nicole Williams. By making their perspectives tangible, I am providing an intimate look into their artistic practice as well as the communities in which they have placed themselves. TO BE A WITNESS is a nomadic portrait journey across the women I have collided, befriended, advised, listened, cried, danced, laughed, with in this lifetime and beyond. It is an exploration and interrogation of our choices as women in how we create, cultivate and sustain community.
“[With] the photographic and archival installation I WILL REMEMBER YOU, [created during] a fellowship with the Emory Arts and Social Justice program, I solidified a methodology and framework that I would like to implement across my practice. This begins with archival research, followed by call and response through writing or music, then the creation of new photographs that embody the research.
“During the ON::View Residency, I will utilize her own archival materials, journaling and personal practice to create a speculative narrative of myself – one that honors the present but also takes into account what my future self may look like. I think this will be a turning point in my practice and timely addition to the TO BE A WITNESS series.”
– Sierra King
Artist Talk: Saturday, March 22nd at 2PM
Project Finale: Friday, April 4th from 5 - 9PM in conjunction with First Fridays in Starland
About the Artist
Sierra King (b.1992) is a Southern Black woman whose words fall out of her mouth like molasses. An artist, archivist, and curator, she is interested in embodiment, memory work, non-linear timelines, southern colloquiums, musicianship and dark matter. King holds a BA in Art from Valdosta State University and is currently a Social Justice For Archivists Scholar at The University of Alabama in the Masters of Library Science and Information Program. She serves as the founder and principal archivist of Build Your Archive, a nomadic memory work lab for Black Women Artists, Cultural Workers Organizers and their communities. King’s interdisciplinary practice presents photographic and archival installations in site specific spaces that honor the land — how it’s being kept and preserved.
