Black Girl: A Montage, 2019
Black Girl: A Montage reflects on my early exposure to how media defines and ascribes 'representation,' both subconsciously and consciously. Considering my childhood in a rural Southern setting at the dawn of Y2K, notions of Black girlhood, nostalgia, and representation in the 90s-00s were starkly juxtaposed with prevailing White beauty standards not only on TV but in my everyday experiences. In this work, televised media, characters, and cartoons become the medium for storytelling that aims to re-examine and rearrange narratives that don’t always reflect the “Black girl” experience.
Recent iteration of Black Girl: A Montage, Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami Beach, North Miami, FL, 2023.
Photo courtesy of Zachary Balber.
Recent iteration of Black Girl: A Montage, Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami Beach, North Miami, FL, 2023.
Photo courtesy of Daniel Bock
*This photo is quite dear to my heart. There is no better feeling than making something and a contemporary that you look up to is enjoying something you created. With ardent love to you Keisha Rae Witherspoon <3
Casting Shadows, Framing Histories Exhibition. Ten North Group formerly known as OLCDC, The ARC. Curated by Tumelo Mosaka and Adrienne Chadwick. 2021
Nostalgia, barbiehood, and that digital sound tv’s used to make when you turned them on. 2019.
Photo courtesy of Alex Del Canto
The VHS tapes I sourced were old cartoons, kids’ TV shows, animated movies, a few Black classics, along with some completely random or unknown tapes here and there. However, a majority of the VHS tapes I found were centered on White beauty standards, prominent White celebrities of the ‘80s, ‘90s, and 2000s, and the general White-led popular movies of the time. In this iteration, observing the fort of tapes from the outside becomes symbolic of my childhood perception of Whiteness in contrast/comparison to myself; always looking from the outside in. 2019.
Photo courtesy of Alex Del Canto
Inside of the fort. The break through. The understanding that I could make my own vision with the many faces, characters, and people that I first saw myself in. 2019.
Photo courtesy of Alex Del Canto
Reimagined Memories, 2019
Reimagined Memories is a found footage video that evokes ‘handed-down’ memories of my parents’ childhood. The anonymous people in the video are meant to reenact moments my parents shared through their storytelling. Through exploration and appropriation, ties between my family and the families in the video are connected to create collective moments of familial black life in the rural South.
Reimagined Memories, Appropriated found footage, video, 5 min:14 sec, 2019.
Courtesy of the artist, YouTube, and Kinolibrary.
2021. Casting Shadows, Framing Histories. OLCDC The Arc. Curated by Tumelo Mosaka and Adrienne Chadwick. Opa-Locka, FL.
The voices you hear in “Reimagined Memories, the story tellers, the creators of imagination: My Parents.
Projection of Reimagined Memories on six rusted tin roof panels.
My parents in high school. Thankful for their help in my experimental archival video.
Left: Fantasy In The Hold (video projection), Terrance Price II.
Middle: Black Girl: A Montage (no tapes)
Right: Reimagined Memories.
2020 Florida Biennial, Hollywood Art and Culture Center, Curated by Coralie Claeysen-Gleyzon. Hollywood, FL.
Along The Way, 2019
A collaborative video with photographer Alex Del Canto exploring different parts of our South Florida neighborhoods. Scenes were shot near Sunrise, FL, and Hollywood, FL highlighting structures and places that give character and charm to the experience that is South Florida.