ACCELERATOR
Krystle Brown
Slán Abhaile/Safe Home, 2023
Pronounced slawn a-ball-ya in Irish, Slán Abhaile/Safe Home is a community-focused, memory-driven bench in Boston's Dorchester, focused on the ongoing housing crisis impact on working-class residents.
Inspired by benches, the artwork is a repository where Dorchester neighbors can share collective memories of home through photography and oral storytelling.
The piece includes a seating area or bench attached to six shelves. These shelves adorn the sides of the bench and display photographic interpretations of home from willing community members, whether that is a favorite hangout spot in the neighborhood or perhaps someone's front porch. Visitors can also listen to the oral narratives of Dorchester residents facing housing and economic inequality. In a time where home is precarious and sometimes temporary, Slán Abhaile/Safe Home aims to heal generational and socio-economic divides in a city where over 45 percent of renters are cost-burdened. This project highlights these stories while encouraging new questions about how successful Boston will be if the working class cannot afford to live where they work.
Slán Abhaile/Safe Home is inspired by Krystle Brown’s late mother, Kathleen Bowen Brown, who grew up in and around Fields Corner, Dorchester, in the 1950s-70s. She faced a childhood of housing insecurity and economic hardship. Other inspirations for this project are Candy Chang’s Before I Die, Project Row Houses in Houston Texas, and Suzanne Lacy’s Skin of Memory.
LOCATION
Reverend Allen Park, Dorchester, 1-19 Church St, Boston, MA
ACCELERATOR
Krystle Brown
Krystle Brown (they | them) is a multimedia artist based in Salem, MA. Their work explores the connections between class, ancestry, place, environment, and labor, often embracing the role of family archivist and community documentarian. Combining these themes, Krystle creates multimedia installations and photographs that explore the inherent power dynamics in these topics. They hold a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Painting and Art History and an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University.
While studying at SMFA at Tufts, Krystle was awarded the Montague Travel Grant to research in Northern Ireland to understand political strife through the 20th and 21st centuries. From 2019 to 2021, they were an Emerging Artist at Kingston Gallery and had their first solo show in March 2021. In 2022, they began a community art project, “Calling Home,” as an artist-in-residence with the Urbano Project in Boston, MA.