Sarah Swift Presents:

OH MOTHER: For The Love Of The Land

In a social climate obsessed with modernity, and the recent politicization of climate change, this new body of textile work by Sarah Swift explores our humanity's growing dissociation from the natural world and our responsibility to combat the irreversible impact we are having upon our land. This show includes large scale installations and fiber sculptures, visually biomorphic and organic, using raw and recycled materials sourced locally from Rhode Island. Swift incorporates many ecological "problem" materials like plastic bags, drinking straws, fruit netting, plastic wrap, and fabric like bed sheets and clothing that has been heavily used and cannot be donated. Her goal is to challenge the perceptions of a consumer driven society, and inspire others to be more creative and resourceful with their everyday items. Swift says “Reusing the name OH MOTHER, from a 2023 Hera Exhibition exploring the complexities of motherhood within the female experience, I have started to expand the meaning and responsibilities of the role “mother” to extend to the symbiotic relationship within all natural life. Confronted in my thirties with a biological clock and society's growing expectations for a desire to parent, I started to explore my greater purpose of how to fill the role of Mother, caretaker, guardian, in a dif erent capacity than I had previously imagined. I also spent a lot of time considering our relationship to our “Mother Earth” wondering; "In our human entitlement, do we exploit her resources and energy so deeply, because we deem her female?”

Sarah Swift was raised in coastal Rhode Island, and moved to NYC to receive her BFA in Painting from Pratt Institute of Art and Design in 2015. She exhibited work in shows throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan, and won Best of Show at the 2016 TriBeCa Conception Events Exhibition. Swift worked as Gallery Director of Hera Gallery in Wakefield, Rhode Island, and currently remains an active artist member. She has curated shows in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and NYC, and acted as Guest Juror for the Attleboro Museum of the Arts. She has been featured in Artscope Magazine, Art New England, So Rhode Island Magazine, RI-GO Local Live, Root TV, and more. She resides along the East Coast where the ocean and coastal forests deeply influence her work as a Freelance Artist. She is currently exhibiting her work across the country and freelances full time creating large scale textiles for public and private clients. Travel and movement are also an underlying influence in her work. Swift has solo-backpacked 31 countries throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia studying traditional weaving techniques, art history, and architecture. She has also driven 48 of the US states, and 18 National Parks with the hopes to add more in 2025.