Emmer Sewell (1934–2022) was an African-American

contemporary artist Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art i ...

. Sewell is known for her sculptures made of found objects. Her work is included in the collection of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

Early life

Sewell was born in

Perry County, Alabama Perry County is a county located in the Black Belt region in the central part of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,511. Its county seat is Marion. The county was established in 1819 and is named in honor ...

in 1934, growing up on a farm near the town of Marion. She was one of fourteen children born to Patrick Sanders, a dairy employee. Her parents were strict and organized, frequently mobilizing the children to harvest crops, tend to or slaughter their cattle, or immaculately clean the house and surrounding fields. Sewell's first memories of drawing came from the rests she would take during harvests. She would sculpt and draw in the open patches of mud on her parents' property. Sewell carries her parents' habitual, ritual cleaning into her work, as she is constantly tidying, sweeping her yard, and rearranging its contents to make her charms and protective sculptures. A performative child, Sewell excelled in school, particularly in music, performing arts, and arithmetic. Although most of her work is contained on her property, cumulatively, her oeuvre reads as a series of stages where her knowledge and spirituality perform.

Career

Sewell's work undulates through her childhood home and stretches from the road to the back edges of her property. Mundane objects such as mailboxes and old refrigerators become vessels for history and Sewell's personal spirituality, which is a

syncretism Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various school of thought, schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or religious assimilation, assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the ...

of southern American Christianity and West African-derived ancestor propitiation. An X with dots in each quadrant also pervades her work. Sewell described " I put it on refrigerators and those things—symbols of God." Comparing this symbol to ancient Roman symbols that are now ubiquitous, "That is a sign of history. That sign is a great symbol of things. It’s no mean thing to it, nothing devilish in it. It is not. It is a symbol to recognize by. It is a symbol of recognized ways...Them little dots in it make it a star. Let you know you got good running. Knowledge can make you be a star You can use your knowledge and background." Other notable assemblages include a generations-old doghouse bordering the woods, many

Black Panther A black panther is the Melanism, melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical Rosette (zoology), rosettes are al ...

inspired scarecrows, which stand guard against animals in her crops and people entering her property, and shrines to ancestors or biblical tales which are assembled on tree branches.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sewell, Emmer 1934 births 2022 deaths 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American women sculptors 21st-century American sculptors 21st-century American women sculptors People from Perry County, Alabama Sculptors from Alabama