Motivated by a sense of accountability for harms caused by my ancestors, I have spent many years investigating the cultural phenomenon of historical reenactment as the ritualized performance of unresolved trauma. Haunted by the past, my activism takes form in a queered materiality that summons the ghosts of history/herstory/hxstory, tracing alternate lineages, transmitting different storylines, offering hopeful re-workings. Through apprenticeships with culture bearers across craft traditions, I create sculptures with curative potential, serving as keys for time travel and the possibility of healing past, present, and future generations. Photographs taken at open-air living history museums—from Skansen in Stockholm to Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia—are digitally edited, printed on linen, and fashioned into functional textiles. Moveable set walls provide a space for reflection, deep listening, acting out. Candlestick, slotted spoon, cornhusk doll, besom broom, mobcap, featherbed, snare drum—my objects present as scarecrow-like, silently vibrant, seen and unseen, hiding in plain sight. —Sunny A. Smith, 2019
