Chronicles of Forgotten Folk

Chronicles of Forgotten Folk was a series of works created between 2009 and 2011. The works were mixed media assemblages created from a combination of manmade and organic materials. The work was inspired by Kaersten’s investigation into her ancestral lineage which she traced to an Early Colonial American group of people in Kent County, Delaware. This community, previously known as ‘The Delaware Moors’, were referred to by historians and anthropologists as ‘tri-racial-isolates’ (groups of people with an ancestral admixture of African, European, and Indigenous lineages).

The research that fueled and supported Kaersten’s work focused on the diversity between, and the overlapping of, traditions, home remedies, and daily spiritual rituals that resulted from centuries of cultural blending.

Process and material are central to the meanings and themes of this body of work. The processes involved required an attention to repetitive minute detail. While some artists—particularly those who want to convey a message—choose materials that are ‘transparent’ in the sense of not getting in the way of the message, Kaersten’s materials, whether natural substances or artifacts, typically bring a meaning of their own to the work. Here she creates surrealistic works that appear mercurial, continuously changing in appearance and in definition, that allude to the enigmatic and shifting qualities of social and personal identification, and what it means to connect to home, environment and self.