“Rose B. Simpson: ‘Dream House’" | Art21 "Extended Play”

(soft music)

(soft ethereal music)

- You know when you have
dreams that you're in a house,

it's often the parts of your psyche.

And the different rooms
are different places

in your mind and your spirit.

(soft ethereal music)

A reoccurring place that
represents the parts of ourselves

or different times of our lives.

(soft ethereal music)

As we come to the rooms in this exhibit,

your shadow is cast on the wall,

and we begin with the
awareness of our bodies

and our impact in that space.

(soft ethereal music)

I would ask people to enter into the space

with the kind of reverence
that we would enter

into our own psychological spaces,

that we would navigate
our own internal spaces.

Even if that sensitivity

isn't a comfortable neural pathway,

we can build one.

This is how we start.

(soft ethereal music)

Cool.

Yes.

Start with a little dash of orange.

I didn't know about the
Fabric Workshop before.

I was familiar with some
of their past projects,

but I didn't know the
whole scope of this place.

I'm just gonna keep going.
- Keep going.

- Just give a shape and I'll make it.
- That's perfect.

- They were just inviting
me to play, right?

They were like, what in
your practice do you feel

you don't really get to do as much?

Coming from Santa Clara,

I've only sort of played
around with fabric

for ceremonial stuff.

You can't participate

or have what you're supposed
to wear for ceremony

unless you make it yourself,

and so most people in the
tribe know how to sew.

Oh, dope, I like that one a lot.

Ah!

Okay, is it okay if I chop 'em?

- Yeah, chop them.

- This is like the funniest ever.

This is like Rose's bliss.

(soft ethereal music)

This show, it's like
sifting through your world

to find what is delicious and what isn't.

I wanna just shake it and
all the other stuff come out

and only the good stuff left.

(soft ethereal music)
(machine whirring)

All right. What have we here?

(soft ethereal music)

So cool how it hardens up.

This is perfect.

I couldn't imagine a better morning.

(soft ethereal music)

I've invested so much outside of myself,

like I'm very much, I think,
giving my energy away.

This is a prayer that my life changes

and that I can make space for
the things I value for myself,

and those aesthetics that I value

are not just going out there in the world,

that they're coming back to
me and to my lived spaces.

(soft ethereal music)

I woke up from a dream this morning

that my clay had seeds in it.

- [Producer] Was that a scary dream?

- No, it was like...

I don't know, the metaphor is interesting.

I really like listening to my dreams.

Lots and lots of journeys,
like walking this path

that's like a familiar place.

(soft ethereal music)

When I travel, the first thing I think is,

geez, I wonder what this place looked like

before it was Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Like, who were the indigenous people?

What did the land feel like

and what were the languages
spoken and how did that sound?

I always think that,

and you can fall into
a really deep sadness.

And I can hold space for that
and be like, yes, I'm sad,

and I'm always really sad and
it's always really complicated

and it's like, yeah, and.

It hurts, and it's also now in the present

and we can find incredibly
beautiful things.

(soft ethereal music)

We give baskets with
gifts in the community.

Like if you do something nice
for somebody, you get baskets

and then you'll hang it up in your house,

and then if you need to
gift, then you have baskets.

So it keeps getting kind of moved around.

(soft ethereal music)

Some elders will have their whole ceiling

just covered in baskets.

(soft ethereal music)

Your worth is based on
how much you can give

and how you're recognized
for the gifts you give.

We remove our shoes and we
can sit with each other.

And above us are paper bowls
that have stars in them

that create the ceiling of guidance.

And then below us are pillows
that have stars on them.

And so we're like... the comfort
of guidance is holding us

to give us a place to connect.

(soft ethereal music)

The layers of the rooms in this exhibit

are very much about boundaries
and how much I share

and how much I don't share.

(soft ethereal music)

I wanted people to see what
the walls were made out of,

which also provides an
incredible opportunity

to feel like you're in between the walls.

And it is like entering into
layers of the subconscious.

Then there was this deeper space

that you can only see a section of.

And there's actually parts of
the room no one will ever see.

(soft ethereal music)

My work is so much about giving back self

or consciousness to things
that we have deemed lifeless.

(soft ethereal music)

There are three masks in the work room

and in that sort of pressure,

you're sitting in the hot
seat, you're being watched

by more than we would ever
know, and that's supportive.

It's also probably a little
bit critical at times, right?

But how do you act when you know you have

this community that's larger
than what we perceive?

We're on this grind, right?

And it goes and goes and goes.

(soft ethereal music)

It's not necessarily a bad thing,

it's actually the
deliciousness of life, right?

This is it.

I wouldn't be doing this work

if it wasn't the thing that
I needed to learn the most.

(soft ethereal music)

And so everything that I do like this

hopefully is tipping the scale.

Every rock on this side where
my life becomes more conscious

and more intentional and more prayerful.

(soft ethereal music)

It's my goal.

It's my dream.

(soft ethereal music)