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Photo courtesy Nastassja Swift
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"Remembering Her Homecoming," short film and documentary, 2018; masks: merino wool, wire, felt, 18 by 26 by 18 inches (Photo by Marlon Turner courtesy Nastassja Swift)
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"Concealer," 2016, merino wool, wire, 31 by 27 by 3 inches (Photo courtesy Nastassja Swift)
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"I Wanted to Give You the Ocean," wool, cotton, wire, metal, concrete, seaweed, sand, ocean water, 2019, 48 by 28 by 24 inches (Photo courtesy Nastassja Swift)
Who: Nastassja Swift
From a distance, the sculpture appears as a cloudlike formation on the wall of the Quirk Hotel Charlottesville's lobby. Closer in, the piece, “Freedom Whisperers in the Sky,” by artist Nastassja Swift, reveals a multitude of white wool, palm-size heads with natural Black hairstyles.
Swift, a 2015 graduate of VCU Arts, says that her “hands can’t move fast enough” since discovering the art of needle felting. The sculptural fiber artist’s first loves (printmaking and painting) have taken back seat to her work in the fiber arts. Since introducing “Concealer,” her first piece crafted in white wool, Swift often hears, “Whoa, you did that with wool?” She further explains: “To this day, people still think the work is another material until they get closer.”
Her inspirations include womanhood, Blackness, headline news, observations in nature, articles and books. Indigo, a character from Ntozke Shange’s novel “Sassafrass, Cypress and Indigo,” is currently inspiring Swift’s use of the color blue. Always documenting ideas, Swift is currently working out of five of her rediscovered sketchbooks, seeing them with new eyes.
Swift’s work is built on a foundation she calls “a great domino effect” from her mom, Stephanie Swift, to her elementary school teacher Mrs. Richardson, to the art academy at Old Donation School in Virginia Beach, eventually leading to VCU. Her mother's porcelain doll collection and her high school art portfolio of charcoal drawings served as the younger Swift’s introduction to art. If Swift wanted to view the collection, she had to ask for permission, and her mom would carefully handle the drawings, almost like a museum curator. Swift says this “taught her the value of access.” In elementary school, Swift’s teacher Mrs. Richardson took notice of her pupil’s artistry and encouraged her to take advantage of art opportunities. This led Swift to attend classes at Old Donation School in Virginia Beach. One day a week throughout middle school she was bused to the center, where she was immersed in various art media all day. This eased Swift’s transition to VCU, where as an art major her coursework spanned multiple disciplines, including architecture, ceramics, welding and more.
One of four artists currently in residence at the Contemporary Arts Network in Newport News, Swift’s new body of work dissects language around Blackness. “Wool becomes a tool to describe other images,” Swift explains. “This is what it feels like when you say that word ... gentrification, redlining, segregation, incarceration.”
