Phoenix Savage

WHAT CARRIES US IN THE DARK
In our darkest hours, when everything seems so dim, light remains—albeit faint and cast uncertainty. Koorsoo, defined within Persian culture is a “faint glimmer of hope”; Phoenix Savage interprets Koorsoo not as hope but trust, a quiet certainty that lives within the soul of our inner head, our memory/experiences, and our lineage.

Phoenix is a sculptor, installation artist, educator, and scholar whose work spans metal casting, weaving, ceramics, assemblage, and socially engaged ethnographic projects. She holds an MFA in Sculpture from Georgia State University as well as graduate degrees in Medical Anthropology and Art History. Her practice melds research, material culture, and ancestral philosophy. Her time in Nigeria as Fulbright Fellow exploring traditional Yoruba philosophy and their long history of bronze casting are seminal in grounding her personhood. Today, she creates tactile, participatory artworks that invite people to move beyond observation and engage in the liminal space of knowingness.

In this talk, Phoenix will explore Koorsoo—the faint glimmer that survives the night, and powers the imagination. Drawing from her research into the Yoruba concept of how Human Beings come to have a head and her research on Iron Plantations of the Antebellum South-one of the most unique examples of communal cooperation and bargaining between enslaved and planter cast societies -Phoenix will share how trust is forged: through centering knowingness, touch, fables and the making process; the communal aspects that transforms the dim light of the darkness into sunshine.

Koorsoo is not such much a rebellion against despair but a foundational way of being that protects the mind/body and soul from despair. Phoenix invites us to consider how even the smallest light is a forward motion asking each of us to believe in ourselves and our communities.