Step close to any of her works, and you’ll see vanessa german prove that intimacy and impact aren’t mutually exclusive. Her works define and redefine what it means to animate the soul, to construct and reconstruct expressions of self and identity, and to reanimate and explore histories.

Her works are spellbinding. Take THE LOVERS DREAMING THE SAME DREAM IN THEIR LUMINOUS FIBERS, 2024. Formally, we see two heads, the two lovers, locked in a shared dream, one head resting on the other, each settled into a bed. And materially? What a revelation. german reappropriates a “pre-civil war coverlet,” simultaneously causing each of us to pause, and wonder precisely what this fabric is, and what it means. That definition anchors these fibers in a past that is as painful as it is full of disenfranchised potential. The fabric, the bed, are grounded; the heads, glittering and glimmering, metaphorically and physically threaded together by way of gold glass beads, become symbols of potential, of hope, of escape.

That same sophistication underpins YOUR BODY LOVES YOU OF BEING, 2022, a mixed media sculpture that combines fiber, costume jewelry, Wheaton Glass presidential decanters – Ulysses Simpson Grant, among others – and beadwork. There’s an eye; flowers; crystal; glass. And that eye – it is as if german has constructed a combination that serves both evil eye and the history and contemporary intensity of Black women’s identities and
beauty to bear on that shimmering, quizzical, reprehensible bottle.

In german’s words, “Every work of art is an awakening.” Even more subtly, she has described part of each piece as embodying a “secret work” that links what has come before, experientially and creatively, with what becomes embodied in the present, in the piece, in the now. Yet german also acknowledges that a portion of the creative act is even beyond her. It’s for these reasons that there’s little point in deconstructing each work to explore every component, every element, to attempt to unravel the story as if we were each able to unravel a stitch. There’s a beautiful meaning to the phrase nkisi nkondi: power figure. What we might best do with YOUR BODY LOVES YOU OF BEING and THE LOVERS DREAMING THE SAME DREAM IN THEIR LUMINOUS FIBERS is explore the dynamic each invites rather than attempt to deconstruct what each means. Sure, we may each be mesmerized by the surface, the sparkle, but that’s a great starting point for a more intense journey, a more intimate story, and a more indissoluble acknowledgment that vanessa german’s works may shine on the surface but they burn in our souls.