Elivra Clayton.

Artist in Residence at Shillim

Medium: Textiles

Year: 2025​

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Elvira Clayton’s artistic practice is rooted in storytelling as a form of repair. Identifying as both a storyteller and “story collector,” she creates work that centers voices historically silenced or erased, particularly those of enslaved people in the United States. Her ongoing project focuses on the 1859 Savannah slave auction, during which 436 slaves were sold over two days. Working from an original auction catalog, she is creating one textile-based sculpture for each enslaved person listed, transforming archival data into embodied, material presence.

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Textile is central to her practice, functioning as what she describes as an ancestral technology. She works primarily with Ossenberg, a fabric historically used to clothe enslaved people, reactivating its material history through slow, deliberate processes such as stitching, weaving, and screen printing. Each sculpture is built through handwoven structures made on simple, often self-constructed looms. Materials, such as family photographs, meaningful objects, and found elements are embedded into the work.

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Community collaboration is integral. Through workshops in places such as Brooklyn, the Bronx, and India, participants contribute to the making of sculptures, reflecting the collective nature of the histories she engages. Importantly, these collaborations prioritize mutual exchange rather than extraction, with an emphasis on teaching transferable skills.

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Her sculptures are grouped according to family units listed in the catalog. At Shillim, Elvira and the villagers made three sculptures of a family of enslaved people as well as a quilt. Across her practice, material, process, and participation converge to create works that are not only representations of history, but active sites of remembrance, connection, and healing.​​