Sappho Room is a poetry residency at my home in Amenia, New York, founded in 2018. Residents have included Candystore, Felecia Chizuko Carlisle, Charity Coleman, HH Hiaasen, Camila Marambio, Margaret Namulyanga, Paloma Barhaugh-Bordas, Aurelia Rohrbacker, Agustine Zegers and Neslihan Çiftçi.
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The “Friends, Lovers and Friends and Lovers of Friends and Lovers” exhibition at the Sappho Room during Upstate Art Weekend in 2021 featured art, writing and performance by Paloma Barhaugh Bordas, Candystore, Felecia Chizuko Carlisle, Charity Coleman, HH Hiassen, Fabienne Lasserre, Margaret Namulyanga, Sean Joseph Prentice, and a collaboration by Paloma Barhaugh Bordas & Christy Gast.
The Sappho Room is a retreat for poets and artists. The project was instigated by a gift of poetry by queer and BIPOC writers that was organized by Jarrett Earnest and Candystore. Books arrived from friends and strangers, and now welcome residents on a shelf made with scraps from the renovation. This exhibition shares some of the fruits of this shared space, this queer kin-making project.
–Christy Gast, August 2021
Outside:
Sappho Room Quilts & Cyanotypes (2020) Indigo, cyanotype and cochineal-dyed cotton, various dimensions by Christy Gast & Paloma Barhaugh Bordas
Barn Quilt (2021) Printed mesh, cyanotyped cotton, 5’4” x 5’8” by Paloma Barhaugh Bordas
Sappho Flag (2021) Nylon, acrylic, wood, 3’ x 4’ by Hannah Hiassen
Inside:
Hoops (2020) Wire, linen, dimensions vary by Fabienne Lasserre
Canary (insight on the writing spider) (2019) Poem by Candystore
Post-Horizon Songs (Opus 1 Solid) (2020) Video, 6 minutes 41 seconds by Felecia Chizuko Carlisle
concerning the exaltation of beasts (2021) Analogue embroidery, natural dyed yarns on vintage homespun linen, 10.5” x 9.25” by Sean Joseph Prentice
stone in an age of rust (2021) Analogue embroidery, natural dyed Japanese yarns on pre-1940 Ukranian homespun linen 12” x 11” by Sean Joseph Prentice
a treatise on the resurrection of angels (2021) Analogue embroidery, natural dyed yarn on vintage Karen hill tribe fabric 10.5” x 10.5” by Sean Joseph Prentice
and their branches will wither (2021) Analogue embroidery, natural dyed Japanese yarns on pre-1940 Lithuanian linen 10.5” x 13” by Sean Joseph Prentice
Now that everything is Poetry (2019) 4 minute audio recording by Charity Coleman
Wall Piece (2020) Wire, paper 3’ x 3’ x 4’ by Fabienne Lasserre
A Live Presentation (2021) by Margaret Namulyanga, Friday, August 27, 4 PM