Rest Stops: Thriving in the Thresholds of Altadena
Rest Stops: Thriving in the Thresholds of Altadena
Kenturah Davis
Kenturah Davis
In the wake of the devastating Eaton Fire that ravaged Altadena, CA, in January 2025, this project seeks to reclaim what was lost—transforming the remains of fire-damaged trees into vessels and integrate them with drawings that honor the resilience and rich history of Altadena’s Black and Brown community. As an artist who calls Altadena home, I accept the call to find room for possibility and expansion in the face of devastation. I have developed a design lab called Accordion Press, through which limited edition objects are developed out of prompts designed to unpack the nature of our reality. The next phase of this project will focus on the aftermath of wildfire and its implications on how we create a sense of community and home. Partnering with a local mill, I will craft objects from salvaged trees using wood-turning and other techniques. Additionally, I will create ceramic works that embrace fire as a sacred and transformative element in the ceramic-making process. By turning destruction into containers symbolic of collective memory, this project offers a tangible path to healing.
As evidenced by past work, this project will be fundamentally shaped by research about ecology, physics and architecture. Citing our local literary giants like Octavia Butler, the project will bridge the sociopolitical landscape with proposals of alternative imagination. Unconventional designs that take into account our experience will emerge to help residence bring new definition to our survival as we begin to rebuild. Institutions like The Huntington Library, Cal Tech, and the Altadena Historical Society will be resources to undergird this work. This project will launch this next iteration of design at the end of 2026, in the lead up to a presentation of work in the Altadena-focused exhibition at the Huntington Library in 2028. Partnering with a local mill, I will craft sculptural objects from unsalvageable trees, which will be featured in exhibitions at venues such as the Huntington Library and other gallery and community spaces. Additionally, I will create ceramic works that embrace fire as a sacred and transformative element in the ceramic-making process. By turning destruction into beauty, this project offers a tangible path to healing. The creative process will be documented to serve as a guide for other fire victims, illustrating how art can be used to process grief and loss.
In collaboration with the other organizations like the Black Arts Alliance, this documentation will culminate in a short film capturing the stories of the community and the journey of artistic transformation. The final works will be publicly exhibited in late 2026, with select pieces gifted to the Altadena community as an offering of restoration and hope. By merging sculpture, ceramics, and film, this project not only preserves the cultural legacy of Altadena but also serves as a model for collective healing through creative practice.
Drawing & Illustration, Public Art, Sculpture, Visual Arts
2026
About Kenturah Davis
Altadena, CA
Kenturah Davis is an artist working in Altadena, CA and occasionally Accra, Ghana. She received her BA from Occidental College and MFA from Yale University School of Art. In those academic environments, she advanced her technical skill in drawing in printmaking with rich research into ancient technologies and information systems as a way to unpack how we construct our lived experiences. Our use of language, its triumphs and failures, are a driving force behind the drawings and objects that make up her work. The integration of writing and portraiture explore questions around how systems shape the way we perceive ourselves and the world around us. The increasing blur and shifting of the text and the figures in the work speak to the instability of our reality. The inclusion of handmade vessels and weavings and other forms synthesize the ways we contain and transfer information as we navigate our reality. In the words of Octavia Butler: “All that you touch you Change. All that you change changes you. The only lasting truth is change.” Kenturah’s work has been acquired by institutions including MOMA, the MET, Studio Museum, MOCA Los Angeles, Hammer Museum, Blanton Museum, ICA Boston and ICA Miami. Recent solo exhibitions include “clouds” at Stephen Friedman Gallery, “Dark Illumination” at Occidental College’s Oxy Arts, “Apropos of Air” at Matthew Brown, “(A)Float, (A)Fall, (A)Dance, (A)Death” at Jeffrey Deitch and “Everything that Cannot Be Known” at SCAD Museum of Art.
Kenturah Davis is an artist working in Altadena, CA and occasionally Accra, Ghana. She received her BA from Occidental College and MFA from Yale University School of Art. In those academic environments, she advanced her technical skill in drawing in printmaking with rich research into ancient technologies and information systems as a way to unpack how we construct our lived experiences. Our use of language, its triumphs and failures, are a driving force behind the drawings and objects that make up her work. The integration of writing and portraiture explore questions around how systems shape the way we perceive ourselves and the world around us. The increasing blur and shifting of the text and the figures in the work speak to the instability of our reality. The inclusion of handmade vessels and weavings and other forms synthesize the ways we contain and transfer information as we navigate our reality. In the words of Octavia Butler: “All that you touch you Change. All that you change changes you. The only lasting truth is change.” Kenturah’s work has been acquired by institutions including MOMA, the MET, Studio Museum, MOCA Los Angeles, Hammer Museum, Blanton Museum, ICA Boston and ICA Miami. Recent solo exhibitions include “clouds” at Stephen Friedman Gallery, “Dark Illumination” at Occidental College’s Oxy Arts, “Apropos of Air” at Matthew Brown, “(A)Float, (A)Fall, (A)Dance, (A)Death” at Jeffrey Deitch and “Everything that Cannot Be Known” at SCAD Museum of Art.