Britt Rynearson

Enrolled Member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation
(Arrow Lakes/Yakama)

Story Circle, 2024
Sculpture installation, bead & wire
These forms map the ways stories take shape within us. I see each bead as a moment and each circle as a story constructed from those moments.

The natural colors represent new growth and the plateau at sunrise. This self is hopeful and has the energy to be renewed in the light. The achromatic tones represent the night sky, darkness, and loss. This self is introspective, feels pain, and sits in silence. In both, we grow.

Our stories transcend time and gain new meaning when shared.

Kinship Circles, beaded sculptures that represent the ever present circles of kin, past and present, that move around each one of us

Wreaths of fur, faux fur tied with leather onto a metal frame

Silk and wire sculpture, hand pleated and dyed. 5’ tall.

Map Series

An original large-scale drawing to represent Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo to support young women in disadvantaged areas of the city, this map drawing, represented here in sections, examines how we identify ourselves within imagined places and how maps shape our sense of identity. The visual irregular patterns echo both natural forms and socio-economic realities, questioning how we read landscape as story.

The work reflects on the intention behind created spaces—the streets of a city, the boundaries we draw. When we encounter maps, we locate ourselves within their logic, but these drawings ask us to consider whose logic that is and what stories get written into the geography we inherit.

By revisiting this piece years later, the work explores how our understanding of place shifts over time, and how the spaces we create carry forward the intentions and consequences of those who shaped them.