{"id":254995,"date":"2019-10-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/uptown-artist-reflects-on-labor-and-parenthood\/"},"modified":"2019-10-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-18T07:00:00","slug":"uptown-artist-reflects-on-labor-and-parenthood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/uptown-artist-reflects-on-labor-and-parenthood\/","title":{"rendered":"Artista de Uptown reflexiona sobre el trabajo y la paternidad"},"content":{"rendered":"

By KIT-BACON GRESSITT | Uptown News<\/p>\n

The remnants of youth \u2014 favorite photos, stickers, love notes \u2014 are often stashed in attics or tucked on bedroom shelves; sometimes they even make it to living room walls, framed for posterity. But Uptown artist Dia Bassett has taken her memorabilia to a new level. The resulting piece, a two-panel collage titled \u201cWork,\u201d has been acquired by the San Diego Workforce Partnership for an exhibit at its new headquarters in Kearny Mesa.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The origin of Bassett\u2019s piece is found in the youthful world of the college food service industry, back in her undergrad days at Point Loma Nazarene University.<\/p>\n

\u201cI created the piece in 2001,\u201d Bassett explained, \u201cwhile I worked at the Point Break Cafe on campus, using hand-filled food order forms. \u2018Work\u2019 speaks to various connotations of work: work done by hand, the work in the act of studying and learning, work on the self, work of art. I mixed a little coffee in there, too, so it has a nice patina.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Uptown
“Labor” by Dia Bassett (Courtesy the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The theme of labor Bassett\u2019s piece shares with the exhibit host is not a coincidence. The Workforce Partnership, which provides services to workers and businesses, launched an effort last April to showcase San Diego artists in the foyer of its meeting and training rooms. A request for creations that reflect, as the partnership described it, \u201cwork \u2014 loosely defined in all its ugliness, beauty, grit\u201d caught Bassett\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had a call for artists,\u201d Bassett recounted, \u201cand I was like, \u2018Oh, I have artwork that is that theme exactly.\u2019\u201d In fact, another of her works, titled \u201cLabor,\u201d a gicl\u00e9e print on paper, was also purchased for the exhibit.<\/p>\n

While Bassett\u2019s works tend toward reinterpretation of the artifacts of daily living \u2014 at one point she was sketching on her infant daughter\u2019s cloth diapers \u2014 the blended roles of artist and mother are inspiring changes in her creative process.<\/p>\n

\u201cTypically, my work has been fiber-based and at least somewhat three-dimensional, even if it\u2019s a wall hanging,\u201d the artist said. \u201cI did a really big fiber installation at the San Diego State Downtown gallery. It had hundreds and hundreds of hangers, and I upcycled a lot of clothing. Because we live in the world we do, most of the clothing is produced in sweatshops. I really thought a lot about the cycle and evolution \u2014 the life of a piece of clothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The installation piece also had sonic and performance elements: the sound of a sewing machine, the artist conducting an orchestra with knitting needles, a jar of sewing pins and other objects passed out to the audience as instruments. However, such interactive installations are time- and labor-intensive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t really do that type of work right now,\u201d she said, \u201cbecause I don\u2019t have time or head space. That\u2019s why I did those little diaper sketches. I\u2019m in a transition. The themes I\u2019ve been interested in the last few years, they are still so relevant to my life \u2014 more so because I\u2019ve become a mom. Labor, I have always been interested in, scenes of labor, especially invisible labor. There are so many masses of people performing invisible labor because of global capitalism \u2014 not making a living wage but producing goods for our modern Western world. Now, as a mom, I can see how invisible labor is so much a part of motherhood. I definitely feel passionate about wanting moms to have more support for what they do. What we do now is not sustainable. We\u2019re stressing parents out, and it\u2019s not good for the babies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Uptown
Dia Bassett draped in one of her soft sculptures (Photo by Christopher Atwood)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite the challenges, support from Bassett\u2019s family members allows her to continue her creative work, which includes an artist interview podcast bearing her name and hosted on YouTube. It is part of her network, something she recommends to other artists.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to have friends who can give you feedback,\u201d Bassett said. \u201cThe social part of being an artist is really important and making lots and lots of artwork is really important. You make stuff you might not show to anybody \u2014 you shouldn\u2019t be afraid to fail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bassett\u2019s collage and print will be on display for a year, along with the works of local artists Jennifer Bennett, Esther Rodriguez, Victoria Rutherford, Claire Salisbury-Ruf, Rebecca Smith, and Jasmine Zink. Those interested in viewing the artwork can reach out to officecoordinator@workforce.org to arrange a viewing.<\/p>\n

Para m\u00e1s informaci\u00f3n visite diabassett.com<\/a> y workforce.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Kit-Bacon Gressitt formerly wrote for the North County Times, and she is the publisher of Writers Resist, a literary journal. She also hosts Fallbrook Library\u2019s monthly Writers Read author series and open mic and teaches Women\u2019s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies in the Cal State system. Reach her at kbgressitt@gmail.com<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By KIT-BACON GRESSITT | Uptown News The remnants of youth \u2014 favorite photos, stickers, love notes \u2014 are often stashed in attics or tucked on bedroom shelves; sometimes they even make it to living room walls, framed for posterity. But Uptown artist Dia Bassett has taken her memorabilia to a new level. The resulting piece, […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":844,"featured_media":225910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Uptown artist reflects on labor and parenthood","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11551,11550,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-254995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-news","category-top-stories","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/844"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}