3 minute read
Searching for Strykers in Gilboa
In her creative practice Clover Archer explores the incomplete nature of historical records, the fragility of personal legacy, and the unique set of characteristics that define the individuality of each of us. Working in a variety of media (drawing, installation, video, text, performance, photography), Archer considers archival breadcrumbs that contribute to an understanding of ordinary lives lived.
At the invitation of the Gilboa Historical Society, Archer is creatively exploring the history of the Stryker family, who first settled in the area in the early 1800s. Working with family members Janine Stryker Laine Susz of Rochester and Susan Stryker Morkaut of Gilboa, Archer conducted genealogical research to discover evidence left behind by those on the branches of the Stryker family tree in the Gilboa, West Conesville (Strykersville), and Conesville regions.
The presentation at the Museum includes family tree charts, graphite drawings, a generational timeline, and ephemera from personal Stryker collections. This project is a reflection on the impossibility of creating a cohesive ancestral narrative, the fragmentary nature of personal histories, and the complexities inherent in attempting to understand the present through the past when so much of the past is lost to time.
About The Artist
Clover Archer is a mixed-media conceptual artist living and working in Lexington, VA. She holds her MFA from New York University. Archer is the Director of Staniar Gallery at Washington and Lee University where she also teaches in the art department. She is the recipient of a Professional Fellowship from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and has twice been a residency fellow at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. In 2019, Archer had an artist’s residency at the Prattsville Art Center, leading to her research into the region.
Archer’s creative practice involves taking on multiple roles beyond her studio, such as detective, archivist, writer, historian, graphic designer, and office manager. She established the Institute for Clew Studies (ICS) to bring together these various components of her artistic pursuits. The mission of ICS reflects the mission of her overarching art practice: to rescue, interrogate, and re-imagine microhistories and ordinary experiences—the small moments and specific minutia of everyday lives that occupy the vast amount of time and space between milestone moments often considered “important” or “memorable.”
Archer calls these granular histories “Clews:” the infinite everyday layers of our lives that are too numerous for documentation, thus lost to time. Our contemporary word “clue” is derived from the middle English word “clew,” meaning a ball of yarn. In Greek mythology, a “clew” leads out of a labyrinth, hence our contemporary meaning: something that leads to a solution. With the labyrinth as a metaphor for life, Archer considers granular histories to be what brings us through the maze of our lives.
More Information
The Gilboa Museum & Nicholas J. Juried History Center is located at 122 Stryker Road in Gilboa. It is open every weekend through October 9 from 12-4:30 pm. For more information, please visit gilboafossils.org or call 607 652 2665
The exhibit is made possible with support from the Conesville Historical Society, NBT-Grand Gorge, Ethel M. & Orville A. Slutzky Family Foundation, and the Zadock Pratt Museum.
