Elvira Clayton: Yearning to Breathe Free

Elvira Clayton tells stories centered on those who historically had little to no voice. Much of her work responds to the lives of people who lived under American slavery. Clayton uncovers stories buried within slave auction notices, plantation records, and other slave-era documents to illuminate hidden historical memories. Through this process, she is honoring her own enslaved ancestors. Her work takes shape in assemblage, performance, installation, handcrafts, printmaking, and community engagement projects. Embedded with family and archival photographs, text from historical documents, slave-era textiles, amulets, and materials from nature – she considers her pieces ritualistic vessels holding stories of lost and forgotten people.