Always Sleep in Paw Paw's Lap

by Jazlyne Sabree Wooden

Jazlyne Sabree (b. 1990, New Jersey) creates large scale collages that include paint, paper, and found objects. Sabree elevates her subjects, members of the African diaspora, as spiritual messengers highlighting the whispers of hidden histories. In her practice, Sabree explores environments, memory, and spirituality as it relates to African diasporic history and present-day existence joined to the capitalist economic system that relied on the labor of enslaved African people. She is interested in the Africanisms, the evolution of African diasporic beliefs and the syncretism and acculturation of African culture, spirituality, customs, traditions found absent from Africa and dispersed across the diaspora. The work explores themes of displacement, historical trauma, and juxtaposes ideas of resilience and fragility.