"Fabricating Nature"
Appropriated imagery printed on acetate, installation
2016
This installation includes found acetate prints from a large American retailer, Urban Outfitters. These acetate prints were originally used as props in a store. This installation takes these prints and arranges them in a way that brings focus to the colors and plants that were created for retail consumption. As humans, we have a tendency to fabricate nature instead of engaging with it. This is meant to serve as a critique of the constant fabrication and profiting from and/of nature, without the care to preserve our planet and our ecosystems.
"Fabricating Nature"
Appropriated imagery printed on acetate, installation
2016
This installation includes found acetate prints from a large American retailer, Urban Outfitters. These acetate prints were originally used as props in a store. This installation takes these prints and arranges them in a way that brings focus to the colors and plants that were created for retail consumption. As humans, we have a tendency to fabricate nature instead of engaging with it. This is meant to serve as a critique of the constant fabrication and profiting from and/of nature, without the care to preserve our planet and our ecosystems.
"$1 Meals"
Still Life, Digital Photograph
2016
"$1 Meals"
Still Life, Digital Photograph
2016
This project is an exploration of food accessibility based on race, geography, and income. These photographs examine meals from the dollar store which are all sold for $1. This project seeks to explore the food products that are accessible to low income communities, labeled as "Rib Shaped Patty Meal" and "Burger with Cheese Product," but through the examination through light and color. The viewer is forced to examine food that is being produced and sold for consumption, while challenging who this food is accessible to.
"I Wait For Catastrophes"
2016
Book & Photographic Series
"I do have a sense of displacement as constant instability - the uninterrupted existence of everything that I love and care about it not guaranteed at all. I wait for catastrophes." -Aleksandar Hemon
There were numerous issues in our family, prior to Katrina, but it definitely served as the catalyst that broke my family apart, literally and figuratively. Twelve years have passed since the storm, but there are many issues that we are dealing with today, that I believe, are the direct results of what Katrina caused. This project explores loss, displacement, migration, personal history, and how the dynamics of relationships and personalities are altered, when everything you know and hold dear is lost. This also serves as a way for me to understand what Katrina meant for my family, and what it means for me, as I try and understand what it means to call a place home, and how that changes once that place is lost.
The book includes photo documentation of my family, paired with the only remaining family photographs that were not washed away or destroyed in the storm. The primary focus of this specific series, is on my grandmother, her brother and sister, and their stories of losing everything overnight during Katrina.
"I Wait For Catastrophes"
2016
Book & Photographic Series
"I do have a sense of displacement as constant instability - the uninterrupted existence of everything that I love and care about it not guaranteed at all. I wait for catastrophes." -Aleksandar Hemon
There were numerous issues in our family, prior to Katrina, but it definitely served as the catalyst that broke my family apart, literally and figuratively. Twelve years have passed since the storm, but there are many issues that we are dealing with today, that I believe, are the direct results of what Katrina caused. This project explores loss, displacement, migration, personal history, and how the dynamics of relationships and personalities are altered, when everything you know and hold dear is lost. This also serves as a way for me to understand what Katrina meant for my family, and what it means for me, as I try and understand what it means to call a place home, and how that changes once that place is lost.
The book includes photo documentation of my family, paired with the only remaining family photographs that were not washed away or destroyed in the storm. The primary focus of this specific series, is on my grandmother, her brother and sister, and their stories of losing everything overnight during Katrina.
"Columbus"
Cyanotypes printed on Cotton Muslin
2016-Present (In Progress)
Cyanotype photographs printed on cotton muslin. End project will result in a large scale quilt composed of the cotton printed photographs. These are in progress photographs showing a detail of the printed fabric photograph and the beginning of the construction and arrangement of the quilt.
All photographs are scanned from 35mm negatives that were taken by family members in Columbus, Mississippi, beginning in the 1920s up until the 1990s. This project serves as an exploration of my deep southern heritage and the family that grew up in Columbus, Mississippi. All photographs were taken in my great grandmother's house, which she inherited from her father, who was the first African American to purchase a house in Columbus, despite being born into slavery. In the 2016, I inherited this same house which has been passed down to me from my grandfather.
"Why Do Black People Eat So Much Chicken?"
2016
Stills from Performance Piece, Video, 1 min 3 seconds
This performance aims to highlight the American stereotypes surrounding black people and food, specifically fried chicken. The performance includes a black female who is being fed fried chicken by a hidden figure with a white glove. The goal of the performance is to force the viewer to confront the model aggressively eating the chicken, and eventually question their own relation to the food. The white glove is meant to serve as symbol of oppression and the history of slave masters feeding scraps to their slaves, which primarily contributed to many of the cultural staples within black food culture.
"The Watermelon Eating Contest"
Still from Performance Piece, Video, Screen Capture from Original 1896 Short film titled "The Watermelon Eating Contest", 48 second loop
2017
This performance includes one black female and one black male, who each hold a platter of watermelon. They attempt to race each other and aggressively eat the watermelon off the plate, in order to see who will finish their plate first. This piece was inspired by a short film called "The Watermelon Eating Contest" which was first presented in 1896 and directed by James H. White. The original film was an 18 second silent film, and was originally released as a comedy.
This performance was intended to be a critique on the social and racial stereotypes surrounding blacks in America. It is also meant to bring attention to the history of film in relation to the distribution and growth of racial stereotypes that are associated with blacks today. Many of the original silent films that include blacks, mock the black body and behaviors of blacks collectively, which is not attributed as a place of derivation for racism and generalizations towards blacks.
"The Face That Was Given To Me"
Stills from Performance Piece, video
2017
In this performance piece, I place myself within a spotlight and perform "blackface." I paint my face in darker brown pigment and cover my lips in bright red lipstick. I include accessories such as "bamboo earrings" and an "Afro Wig," which are both attributed to ghetto, angry, black women.
This performance aims to confront the stereotypes surrounding black women, their attitudes, and physical features, while also critiquing the degradation of "black" features that blackface transforms into a joke.
