CASSIA KITE

CASSIA KITE
Flatwater Folk Art Museum, 2017
10” x 10”
Thread on canvas
Soundstitching on piano

The Flatwater Folk Art Museum is located in Brownville, Nebraska and is home to George and Eva Neubert’s folk art collection. I visited this museum for the first time in 2014, shortly after I started my Soundstitching project.

I enjoy visiting the museum every time I am able to come back to Nebraska. I have always admired folk art because each work has a story that can educate the viewer on an aspect of culture and history, as well as artist process and intention.

This museum is significant to my history because it was originally 1884 Methodist Episcopal church in Howe, Nebraska. The Howe Church was located two miles south and two and a half miles west from my family farm home in Auburn, NE. I remember admiring this church as a young child. It was moved to Brownville, NE and renovated by George and Eva to share their collection of folk art with the public.

Kite on-site translation performance of the Flatwater Folk Art Museum Soundstitching inside the Flatwater Folk Art Museum in July 2017.

Flatwater Folk Art Museum Quilt, front. Flatwater Folk Art Museum Quilt, back.

The front of the quilt exhibits the color scale used in the Soundstitching, as well as the color map. All of the notes in the song are included in the color map design. The backside of the quilt represents the color scale used to translate the Soundstitching, in line form.

This is the participatory soft sound sculpture (instrument) that is programmed to play sounds when touched, that are associated with the Flatwater Folk Art Museum Soundstitching.

Originally, the sounds were programmed to play the notes on the piano associated with the performance of the work on the piano. After researching objects found within the physical collection housed inside the Flatwater Folk Art Museum, I honored the history of the objects found within the space by recording sounds made by these objects for reprogramming the participatory soft sound sculpture for future exhibition.