Architecture of the South
Date2011
MediumDigital prints with acid dye onto silk crepe de chine
Dimensions117 × 24 inches (297.2 × 61 cm) each
Credit LineMuseum purchase
Object number2023.9
Copyright© 2011 Jill Kinnear.
The images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextThis is a three-part work that Scottish and Australian textile artist Jill Kinnear created while teaching at the Savannah College of Art and Design. The panels take the form of a Kashmir shawl, an accessory that was popular with wealthy European and American women in the early 19th century. They are printed with digital compositions of rubbings and images from significant African American sites in Savannah, like the first African Baptist Church, underneath scans from American architect Asher Benjamin’s (1773–1845) The Architect, or Practical House Carpenter, first published in 1830. Benjamin’s designs for neoclassical ornament are related to the details seen in pre-Civil War houses and buildings in Savannah and throughout the American South. Kinnear’s layering effect reminds the viewer of invisible or erased histories of enslavement behind much of the city’s famous architecture.
Text written for Craft Along the Coast, 2026
