Collection: The Woven Gate

In 2025, Davis was invited to participate in the Paradise Lost themed Sculpture @ Sylvester Manor exhibition. Utilizing many of the techniques developed for Harvesting Memories in Blue and working with similar themes/motifs, she created The Woven Gate. 
The circular form of The Woven Gate reflects the agricultural cycles of Sylvester Manor both metaphorically and literally (especially in its use of a round cattle feeder as an armature). At the same time, it physically frames the actual landscape of the Manor—allowing visitors to pass through the gate and see the Manor in a new context. Woven with upcycled material, the sculpture also functions as a gateway—evoking the gates of both heaven and hell from Paradise Lost. One can see hell in the detritus that comprises the gateway, and at the same time see heaven as the “garbage” is turned into something beautiful. These two seemingly irreconcilable ways of viewing the sculpture bring to mind Sylvester Manor’s own discordant story, which includes both the ugliness of slavery and the beauty of nature.

“The Woven Gate invites viewers to consider displacement and diaspora, the flotsam and jetsam of disrupted lives, and the cyclical nature of life and death. It serves as a kind of portal defining the liminal space between worlds and lived experiences.” – Tom Cugliani, Sculpture @ Sylvester Manor Curator