Cure for Grief, 2021
Cure for Grief, 2021
02:59min, video projection
Influenced by an article written by Claudia Rankine, “The Condition of Black Life is One of Mourning”, Cure for Grief responds to Rankine’s conclusion on how strategies involving overwhelming circulation of media depicting violence on black bodies relates to the broader white American psyche - as something categorized as public annoyance or also a lack of feeling for another. These discussions surrounding white grievance and white accountability, black bodies occupying the role of evidence, and aloofness to the suffering of others are what fuel the concepts within this piece. The audio from a Barbie vlog addressing systemic racism sets the backdrop of this piece, as Nikki, Barbie’s black friend, serves as the vessel of enlightenment to her friend, while white characters taking baths serve as “call and response” performances on the screen. The bathers serve as “supportive” listeners, involving themselves in the issues illuminated by Nikki by being a present bodies, but remaining comfortably shielded in the tub. In a looping fashion, the video is projected onto an umbrella, a item used to diffuse, shield, and block harmful elements from its user.
Welcome series, 2018
The Welcome series consists of my most recent work, various readymade sculptures of household furniture with live-action video of a woman doing monotonous tasks projected onto the objects. The pieces included are Welcome, Entertain, Cook, Serve, Heal, and 10 and a Half Cans and utilize a welcome mat, entertainment center, microwave, medicine cabinet, a set dinner table, and 10 empty spray cans accompanied by one half full.
The character resides within a space filled with things and stuff, objects stripped of meaningfulness overtime through repetitive labor, the nature of manufactured mediocrity, and layer after layer of paint. She gazes, she eats, she bathes, she repeats, exhibiting what it means to live in constant vacancy and a purgatorial rhythm.
Another Bedtime Story, 2017
Another Bedtime Story is an installation consisting of an episodic claymation nestled within a child's fort. The television is surrounded by pillows, bedding, a single lamp, and fluffy clouds floating within the empty, dim place.
Read more here.
Happy Birthdays! (2016)
Happy Birthdays! is a digital video installation piece comprised of a three-channel video surrounding a space filled with props which create an intimate environment depicting the celebration that is the death of youth.
Read more here.