Sarah Kate Burgess
Hissed Between Blue Teeth
Hissed Between Blue Teeth honors sailors’ resourcefulness in enhancing their lives under all circumstances – even under the pressures of war. In exploring the ways in which sailors “made-do” in order to build full lives aboard Olympia, several creative means that they used to beautify and humanize their lives were identified. Among them were tattooing, sewing, carving, and marlinspike work. Superstitions, traditions, and the telling of tall tales wove the sailors’ emotional lives together. These small sculptures explore these techniques, drawing connections between embroidery and storytelling, and tattooing and sewing.
About the Artist
Sarah Kate Burgess holds an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art with a focus in Metalsmithing. She has been a resident artist at Oregon College of Arts and Crafts, Interlochen Arts Academy, and Swim Pony’s Cross Pollination. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, at the Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, MA; the Museum of Public Fiction in Los Angeles, CA; the Acquiro Civico, Milan Italy; the Society for Contemporary Crafts, Pittsburgh PA; and with the Opulence Project at SOFA NY. Sarah has held workshops on making jewelry from paper for the West Collection’s MAKE Series, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, and The John Michael Kohler Arts Center. In 2015 she and collaborator Jacque Liu received a grant from Asian Arts Initiative for their Pearl Street Micro-Project, Peach Blossom Spring, in which the community assembled and installed hundreds of pinwheels along the 1200 block of Pearl Street, Philadelphia.