I repost (as usual) from @followriversinstitute to share a work by Troy Montes-Michie commissioned by Rivers and Amistad to enter the Amistad fine art collection, where Troy has researched as Amistad-Rivers Research Resident. The second image, of the back of the work, foregrounds the weave. The weave is the ground and establishes an integrity of relationship between different materials. With our first joint-commission, I think about the differences (our histories, our areas of expertise, our daily forms of labor) between Rivers and Amistad, and how we have worked-over and under- together these past years with shared commitments and inspiration. And now we are woven. 🙏 @followriversinstitute @amistadresearchcenter • When Rivers & Amistad first conceived of our collaborative research artist residency, we used the language “a breathing archive” more than once. In and out. An exhale invites the next breath; it makes space and necessitates subsequent action. An important component of the residency, for which artists are invited to New Orleans for extended research in the archives of the Amistad Research Center—and more expansively—the city of New Orleans, is the artist commission. Every artist invited to research in the archive and Amistad’s fine art collection, in turn, contributes, expands, and complicates this material history through the production of a new work that enters the collection and remains in New Orleans long after the artist’s residency. At the conclusion of Troy Montes-Michie’s first stay of his residency, he shared the new work. (As a teacher, he is the best student – always turning in his assignments before its due date). A woven collage, using found materials from archival fashion magazines and Troy’s research in the papers of Richmond Barthé, “The Dreamer” is the newest work to enter Amistad Research Center’s fine art collection. It is breath-taking-and-giving. IMAGES: (1) Front (2) Back of ‘The Dreamer,’ 2022, by Troy Montes-Michie @troymmichie @followriversinstitute @amistadresearchcenter @mellonfdn #troymontesmichie #followriversinstitute #amistadresearchcenter #breathingarchive