SYD CARPENTER (1953 - ) & SANA MUSASAMA (1957 - )
Mother Pin.

Earthenware and fabric, 2020. Approximately 445x140x101 mm; 17½x5½x4 inches.

Provenance: collection of the artist.

Mother Pin is a ceramic cadavre exquis between ceramicists Syd Carpenter and Sana Musasama. The Mother Pin series, inspired by Carptener's matrilineal line, takes the form of an antique clothespin used by her mother, Ernestine Carpenter. Primarily made of clay, she also uses found objects and executes each pin to evoke the power of the feminine form. The head of the form, executed by Sana Musasama, is rooted in her interests in women's rights, rites of passage, and female chastity.

Ceramicist and educator Syd Carpenter attained her BFA and MFA from the Tyler School of Art in 1974 and 1976, respectively. From 1991 to 2002, she was a professor of Studio Art at Swarthmore College. Over the span of her career, she has won awards, including the Eugene Lang Swarthmore faculty Fellowships 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012; Pew Fellowship in the Arts 1992, and the National Endowment for the Arts, Mid Atlantic Fellowship, 1989.

Sana Musasama is a New York-based ceramicist whose practice is rooted in the rights of women and global approaches to ceramics and clay-making. She holds a BA in Ceramics and Education from City College (1974) and an MFA from Alfred State College of Ceramics (1987), with continued education in Mendeland, the Far East, and South America. Her work has been recognized with numerous awards including an Anonymous Was a Woman Award in 2002 and the Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant in 2013. Musamama was also awarded The Studio Museum in Harlem Residency in 1983–84.

Consigned to support the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation.