What I See: Shara Nova x M. Saffell Gardner
M. Saffell Gardner, "untitled” (work-in-progress)
Painter and sculptor, M. Saffell Gardner said this experimental film was inspired by:
"The workers were responsible for digging track bed for the railroad which would get goods to market from upstate New York to New York City while still fresh. My process is to create a video painting in motion, layer and edit over actual photographs from old rail lines.”
Written by Shara Nova © Blue Sword (ASCAP) administered by Domino Publishing Company USA (ASCAP)
[Vocals – Shara Nova \ Vocal Production - Mitchell Graham @librahouse.studio \ Mixing - Mitchell Graham @librahouse.studio \Prophet Synthesizer – Zac Bru]
Looking at Gardner's video inspired Shara Nova to go on a "Deep dive!”
She called the song she created in response, Who Here Dares, an opportunity for listeners to travel along the history of the railroad as “a European descendant contemplating the history of America, with the genocide of Indigenous people and land grabbing through "legal means," the slavery of African Americans, forced labor, the railroad system, to current systems of labor exploitation, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, the evidence of greater losses to the virus by POC, particularly "essential workers." Many of us white folks sit at home quarantined at the expense of others’ well being. How have things changed since 1619? What has changed in name, but not in economic function? What did you eat today? How did it get to your table, by whose labor and at whose risk? Have we as white folks, the courage to do the moral inventory required? What will we dare to contemplate?”
Who Here Dares
Who here dares to bear witness
To the sweat and the anguish
Oh the face of your brother
While you press on his neck
Baring down even harder
Day by day
More more
More
Who here dares to taste the fruit
Planted on trickery’s soil
Plucked by stolen hands
Carried by burden's back
Upon a railroad track
We pale or laugh
Turn on the tv
Try to forget
Sighing aloud
We don’t dare know what to do
Then bite into the fruit- Lyrics by Shara Nova
What I See is a curated project aimed at creating conversation between artists during a moment of unprecedented isolation. Kresge Arts in Detroit invited fellowship and Gilda Award recipients to create new work inspired by and in response to the works in progress recently shared by their colleagues. In highlighting the connections and mutual inspiration produced through these collaborations, it is abundantly clear how creativity radiates and can deepen existing community networks and lead to new connections. This project is a new addition to our efforts to resource and activate the arts and culture community of Detroit, of which those of us on staff are proudly a part. What I See logo by Asukile Gardner.
Art by its nature is pure exchange
We look and we marvel. We hear and we heal.
We read and we wonder.
Rarely do we know; do we see what the creator
first saw, or the hope that they in turn entrust
to the eyes and minds of others.
That conversation between source and subject is
as rich and worthy, and mysterious as the end
creation. This is art’s constant invitation: to see
and see again, until we see. Sometimes ourselves.
Sometimes our world, sometimes into realms
unknown.
A more raw and wondrous window has yet to
exist. Until one does, may art, and those who answer
its call, continue to do what only they can — making the unseen seen in ways once unimagined.
— Nichole M. Christian, Kresge Arts in Detroit 2020