“SWEPT: This Work I Will Do” which explores the intersection of objects of labor with objects of spirituality, opens to the public on Saturday at Hancock Shaker Village.

Hancock — Unbeknownst to artist and broomsquire Cate Richards, a residency at MASS MoCA last summer—during which they researched the history of New England broom production—would lead to opportunity beyond the intended purview of conducting field work and creating new pieces. The artist, whose work calls attention to the intersection of objects of labor with objects of spirituality, has been making brooms since 2019 when they learned the craft at Foxfire Museum and Heritage Center in Georgia. What began as an intentional immersion over the ensuing three years—to understand the broom as an object where use, beauty, design, labor, art, agriculture, and craft intersect—ultimately morphed into a solo show. “SWEPT: This Work I Will Do” (the subtitle culled from a Shaker hymn), opens to the public on Saturday at Hancock Shaker Village.

“I often hear of brooms being simple, which is a very concrete word, and to me they are so much more complex,” Richards told The Edge, revealing how they feel about binaries (computer programming aside). “The way that we think of gender, the way that we think of art and craft, of good and bad; I think there is so much more to be learned in between those two,” the artist explains. They cited their overarching motivation: “My main goal as an artist is to create an opportunity for a viewer to reflect, and my wish of them is to stop and think about what binaries—and also in this particular case, what histories—have been left out,” pointing to this being part of their job, as an artist, to “work in the interest of progress…and sharing things that are perhaps untold.” Which, as intended, is entirely thought provoking.

The origin of the term broomsquire—an ungendered term, like cobbler, used for someone who makes brooms—resides deep in history; conversely, history resides deep in Richards. They grew up in a family of archivists, the child of a history professor; as such, “history has been part of my life, since I was very young,” Richards says, pointing to the prevalence of interesting objects from history, and images of those objects—particularly antique farm equipment and religious objects—surrounding them while growing up.

“I am very interested in where objects of labor and objects of spirituality intersect,” Richards said, as evidenced by the cooking fork, for instance, “a tool of witches in Europe in the early modern period…and the broom.” The artist works with many of what they call conjunctions—metal o-rings and caps, among others—which, like the grammatical term, act as tools of joining.

Last June, Richards was walking into the studio at MASS MoCA for the very first time to begin creating the body of work that—exactly one year to the day, June 16—is being installed in the Chace Gallery at HSV. In this exhibit, Richards presents a dozen broom-inspired sculptures—made of materials both expected (broomcorn, twine, and wood) and unconventional (plastic and metal)—alongside Shaker brooms, connecting Shakers to contemporary craft practices and exploring the Shakers’ influence on American craft and art today.

When asked to define the term craft in layperson’s terminology, Richards takes pause. “For me, the crafts are handmade with utility that definitely play into a very long standing history,” they explain, coming from the perspective of someone who went through an art program—something they deem very important to consider.

“Working in the craft field, and working in broom history, you’re going to cross paths with the Shakers at some point,” said Richards who, as someone who already had an interest in brooms, was intrigued to discover that the Shakers “had such a reverence for so-called simple objects [like the common broom], but also ascribe to it certain power—it was a ritual tool.” Suffice it to say, this show—of these particular works, being exhibited in this particular place—presents a convergence of all the things Richards has grown to love.

When asked if they are challenging practices and ways of thinking that precede them, Richards chooses not to use that term. Instead, they point to the development of colonial broom making and early American broommaking, to which the Shakers did contribute. “However, they were one of many—and that communal aspect to the development of broom making is something I think the Shakers would have really liked.”

“Swept: This Work I Will Do” opens in the Chace Gallery on Friday, June 17 with a reception and talk for Hancock Shaker Village members; the exhibition opens to the public with regular admission on June 18 and will be on display through November 27. For further details, click here.

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