Vestige
October 2 – 23rd, 2022

Opening Reception
Sunday October 2, 11 AM-2PM

During the early days of the Covid 19 Pandemic, I found myself thinking a great deal about my great grandmother, Emily Bulow. Like me, Emily was raising small children through a pandemic and very uncertain times. During the terrifying first wave in New York, and the subsequent lockdown, it occurred to me that during the Great Influenza of 1918 my grandmother, Marjorie, was the same age as my then four year old daughter, Sage. Finding these parallels made me want to learn more about Emily as a person as opposed to simply a line on my family tree.

A few years before the Great Influenza, my great grandparents lost their toddler daughter, Dorothy, to Leukemia. Emily was so deeply wounded by Dorothy’s death that she sold her wedding ring for a ticket back to England for almost a year before returning to her husband, Alfred, here. During the Great Influenza, my great grandparents must have been overwhelmed with the fear of losing another child, even if they hid it under a stiff, British lip. Their anxiety must have been unbearable especially when Alfred contracted the disease, and later suffered a stroke from it. The scars from this experience must have impacted them and their children throughout their lives.

Even before the Pandemic, one of the main inspirations for my art practice was a circular cushion cover made by my great grandmother. Emily was a seamstress in England before moving to the US. My great grandparents never had much money, but they always made use of what they had. Emily in particular showed a creativity and ingenuity that I admire. She transformed fabric from old garments, hats, scarves and other textiles into new clothes for her children, decorations for their home and even stuffed toys. These pieces reflect their origins even as they are dissected, reassembled and transformed into something new.

Although I don’t work directly with fabric, I’m drawn to this textile tradition and the notion that materials retain memory. As a fiber, paper holds the physical history of every mark, tear, stain and dent on its surface. By repurposing Sage’s drawings from the Lockdown and using the contours of her drawings along with the patterns in my great grandmother Emily’s piece, I’m referencing my own family’s experience while also adding our voice to Emily’s artistic lineage and story.

-Tegan Brozyna Roberts

Originally from the Philadelphia area, Tegan Brozyna Roberts is an artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work draws from her background in painting as well as a long family tradition in textiles. She received a MFA from Brooklyn College where she was a Graduate Teaching Fellow as well as a recipient of the Cerf Award and the Dean’s Award in Art.

Brozyna Roberts has exhibited nationally and internationally including shows at Heather Gaudio Fine Art, Trestle Gallery, Invisible Dog Art Center, Textile Arts Center, Groundfloor Gallery and the Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences. Individual exhibitions include the Yard Gowanus, GoggleWorks in Reading, PA and the Philadelphia International Airport. Roberts has participated in a number of art fairs including Art on Paper, Art Miami and the Seattle Art Fair.

In addition to teaching at Brooklyn College, Brozyna Roberts has lectured at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, PA and Hussian School of Art in Philadelphia. Residencies include the Textile Arts Center (WIP) in Manhattan and the Icelandic Textile Centre in Blönduós, Iceland. In 2019, she participated in Meta Open Arts (previously Facebook AIR Program), which culminated in a permanent installation at Facebook’s New York office.

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Tags: Material, Material Exhibitions, Tegan Brozyna, Tegan Brozyna Roberts