Joyce J. Scott

For over 142,000 years, beads have played an important role around the world as the oldest form of adornment. Joyce J. Scott has revolutionised and transformed the potential of beadwork as a relevant, contemporary art form.

For over fifty-one years, she has devoted her aesthetic practice to waking up the world and expanding beadwork’s boundaries, with powerful in-your-face social commentary. In addressing society’s ills, her visual and performative engagement with cultural stereotypes and racial injustices elucidate her vibrant brilliant works of art.

Joyce J. Scott is recognised and renowned for her masterful use of innovative techniques using the peyote stitch and 'painting with beads': 'Beadwork is a complex geometric copulation of colour, form, temerity, and spirit. Using the peyote stitch (off-loom bead weaving) allows me an immediate improvisational interplay. Because the beads are intrinsically hued, shaped, and pierced, I work within those boundaries; however, the sheer joy coming from defying the preexisting limitations, reassigning the conversation between, and blending without brush, paint, and liquid becomes a different aesthetic investment. It is the ability to aspire beyond the easily expected to the unexplored creations that fuels my quest'. Thus, Joyce J. Scott reveals confrontational narratives — racism, sexism, injustice, and violence — within her lavishly beaded tapestries, neckpieces, and bold sculptural forms.

Messages comprises scholarly essays from experts in their field as well as annotations by museum curators. In providing deeper insights into the influences and extraordinary work of Joyce J. Scott, they astutely capture the essence and spirit of this icon of contemporary art.