“ Speak Chile’ ” (2019) discovers ways to depict the idea and origin of languages, dialects, and memory of language. This project began with the exploration of how those memories can be misconstrued and altered over time; how language itself fades and diminishes over time. “SpeakChile’ ” (2019) acts as an ode to my younger sisters and grandmother and myself and how we articulate and function and have to alter our speech and state of being to survive, to provide comfort for others. I experiment with personal and sought after archival images and design, processes, and moving images, creating yet again an unclear image. I’m focusing on black vernacular and how it grows, functions, and moves when in a space or community that doesn’t accept it. I also focus on black vernacular constantly being corrected and when trying to conform to white America’s standards of language how is that visually embodied and depicted in abstracted forms, creating a glitch of an ode. A glitch of memory. A glitch of a self-portrait. But also trying to show the beauty in that chaos, in that confusion!

This project led to the exploration of having these designs, that depict frustration of coat switching (“deliberately shifting cultural traits and vernacular to suit different circumstances.”) and hiding behind layers to shroud one's authentic self, and see how these works of art, these designs, would look on garments/clothing.