Diacassé* by Diana Baird N’Diaye, Curator/Cultural Specialist, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. Collage neckpiece with sequins and vintage silks,recycled clothing, vintage buttons and textiles. 2014.
“Diacassé*”
Diana Baird N’Diaye
Curator/Cultural Specialist,
Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
Collage neckpiece with sequins and vintage silks
Recycled clothing, vintage buttons and textiles
15″ x 3″
2014
My work explores through objects worn or carried, how our identities, aspirations, and values shape what we wear and how what we wear shapes our lives. As a maker of contemporary amulets, I seek to create one-of-a-kind pieces that become personal signatures for the wearer.
How this works:
After a consultation with each client/customer, I bring together textiles, stones, metals, seeds, shells with symbols of healing from world traditions. To these, I add elements of older pieces of jewelry and embroider texts incorporating personal meanings and memories. I may upon request recombine jewelry that may have come unstrung into a new piece that is an expression of the wearer’s personality, realities, hopes and dreams.
As an artist/scholar my work as Principal Investigator for the Will to Adorn Smithsonian initiative is a labor of love and constant inspiration.
*Diacassé is a Wolof word (from Senegal) meaning to mix up. It sometimes used to refer to patchwork garments that keep evil at bay.
