Kerianne Quick

Artist Statement

When the Dutch East India Company & West India Company sailed up the Hudson River to trade with the colonists and native tribes of New Netherlands the ships often carried a ballast of brick. Usable bricks were traded, those that were unusable were dumped on the riverbanks. Fast-forward two and a half centuries – the clay deposits of the Mid-Hudson Valley were dug and fired into the bricks that built much of Manhattan as we know it. The evidence of these now defunct brickyards dot the banks of the Hudson River from New Jersey to Albany – piles of bricks, industrial castoffs of native clay were fired but unsuitable for construction. These bricks, foraged out of the Hudson River, are a connection to the post-industrial landscape and regional histories; but also a way to explore inheritance and transformation.

Dating from the early to mid-20th century, the bricks used in the Transmutations series were foraged out of the river at Kingston Point and along the Rondout Creek. They are hand-cut and carved, and combined with heirloom pearls, shell, silk, silver, and gold. Through stringing and pearl-knotting techniques, the work draws from both the adornment ideals of the Dutch Golden Age and the ceremonial adornment of the native Lenape Tribes of the Hudson River Valley.

Like the act of colonization, Transmutations mashes together disparate cultures using native materials. Each piece references an uncomfortable combination of European and Native American adornments to create something unique to the Mid-Hudson River Valley.

Learn more about the artist Kerianne Quick.