absence / assemblage
absence/assemblage is a culmination of works by June T. Sanders and I.
By blurring the line between subject and object, I examine how black people cultivate sense of self through acts of beautification and self-care — How they work in opposition to the way black people are represented in popular culture. I am painting for a population whose trauma is disproportionately ignored as a result of a complex system of stigma, people who carry the burden of traumatic and harmful experiences from childhood into adulthood and from generation to generation. The absence of bodies references the notion that black people are disposable and unvalued, while the confrontational scale and content of the work dispels this notion and works towards a disruption of social and political paradigms caused when black people practice the act of radical self-care.
By blurring the line between subject and object, I examine how black people cultivate sense of self through acts of beautification and self-care — How they work in opposition to the way black people are represented in popular culture. I am painting for a population whose trauma is disproportionately ignored as a result of a complex system of stigma, people who carry the burden of traumatic and harmful experiences from childhood into adulthood and from generation to generation. The absence of bodies references the notion that black people are disposable and unvalued, while the confrontational scale and content of the work dispels this notion and works towards a disruption of social and political paradigms caused when black people practice the act of radical self-care.
Superior
20” x 48”
oil on canvas
2018
Superior is a part of Portland Community College permanent collection
1B
Kanekalon, Bamboo Earrings, Invisible Weaving Thread
Variable Dimensions
oil on canvas
2018
Secure (to Gabrielle Goodwin)38” x 49”
2018
oil on canvas
10mm
6’x3’
oil on canvas
2018
Revive & Protect
6’x3’
oil on canvas
2018