S E E D
Murjoni Merriweather
OCTOBER 5 - DECEMBER 22
CulturalDC’s Mobile Art Gallery
Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum
1901 Fort Pl SE, Washington, DC 20020
Opening Celebration
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5 • 12-5PM
Gallery Hours: WED - SUN 10 AM - 5 PM*
*Closed for lunch 1-1:30 PM
Artist talk: Saturday, November 23, from 12-2 PM
Hands-on clay workshop led by Merriweather: December 14, from 12-2 PM
Murjoni Merriweather’s installation in the Mobile Art Gallery will be an immersive space exploring the artist’s personal experiences with growth, patience, and self-care. Connecting with the spiritual and symbolic nature of our planet, Murjoni will cover the gallery floor in soil. Her clay sculptures will be lifted, appearing to grow from mounds of earth. The area will include an interactive space with an opportunity to dig in the dirt and discover hidden items to inspire self-reflection.
This exhibition is a story of growth. It pushes the boundaries of her work outside of the traditional bust, taking her work out of the white walls of a conventional gallery into an environment created for the individuals her sculptures represent, intended to invoke self-reflection and calm.
Artist Statement
Initially, we do not see the fruits of our labor and feel nothing is happening. With patience, self-trust, and care, the sprouts do come. Nature allows me to slow down and treat the present moment as a gift.
I have been planting seeds and practicing the patience to watch them grow. I believe people and gardens share a through-line, a natural connection to an essential element of life. While they germinate, they have to be nourished and cared for with consistent dedication, even when you can't see the roots quietly expanding under the surface.
I've started to exercise my green thumb: I craved to feel more connected to nature. It has been healing for me. The idea of connection extends to a spiritual relationship with the ground. In Bell Hook's Belonging, she says, "black people must reclaim a spiritual legacy where we connect our well-being to the Earth. This is a necessary dimension of healing."
I want you to feel Earth through my work so that a "grounding" can take place. Feeling the warmth beneath our feet brings a sense of freedom, self-awareness, and divine closeness. Each individual sculpture embodies a personality and inherent potential that is within all of us. Come, reflect, explore, and get a little dirty in an exercise of spiritual healing and emotional recovery.
Photo by Yana Mazurkevich
Murjoni Merriweather
As a black woman artist from Maryland, Murjoni Merriweather has found that the best way to create and talk about black culture is through art, especially claywork. Murjoni creates sculpted beings that are based around real people and real experiences.
Her work addresses and eliminates stereotypes through clay portraits and video work. With this, she enjoys going against the European standards of “beauty” that are placed upon people of color (light skin, petite figure,etc.), and normalizing what is natural about black bodies; loving and accepting them as they come.
Through the artwork, connections and reflections with herself and others based on shared experiences. Continuing her craft, she plans to continue eliminating stereotypes and prejudices while uplifting the black community.
