Sites of Power Artist Statement
“I am a brutally soft woman” - Nayyirah Waheed
In exploring the memories of the places where I/we have learned what it meant to hold and wield power-I create. I am interested in the complex dualities that exist within the paradigms of femme identity. I investigate the intersections between soft/hard, feminine/masculine, joy/pain, both/and, sharp/dull, delicate/expendable, temptation/empathy. In creating object and activating them through photograph and video the materiality of memory becomes weapon-from which to wield power through cultural transgression. I play with the role of performance in the practice of code-switching through different cultures. I use trickery to encourage the viewer to call into question their own sites of power and consumption of “other”. Sites of power is an ode to the village that raised me. They made me who I am.
and.
I am both/and. I am a brutally soft woman.
In exploring the memories of the places where I/we have learned what it meant to hold and wield power-I create. I am interested in the complex dualities that exist within the paradigms of femme identity. I investigate the intersections between soft/hard, feminine/masculine, joy/pain, both/and, sharp/dull, delicate/expendable, temptation/empathy. In creating object and activating them through photograph and video the materiality of memory becomes weapon-from which to wield power through cultural transgression. I play with the role of performance in the practice of code-switching through different cultures. I use trickery to encourage the viewer to call into question their own sites of power and consumption of “other”. Sites of power is an ode to the village that raised me. They made me who I am.
and.
I am both/and. I am a brutally soft woman.
