These are mixed media wooden collages. Each piece is taken from a global event, a social condition and it two cases the work is my response to the spoken word artist Christopher Johnson.
I research the topic in depth and piece together portions of the of documentation I have collected regarding my findings. The text is then formatted and faded out creating a soft colored wallpapered affect for the background, the paper is then applied to a board. The text is there to share with you the research supporting the piece yet much is covered up and difficult to read as a complete text. In these works I an asking the viewer to become engaged in a conversation…with me or with themselves concerning important issues. The titles carry as much weight as the visuals in these works.
Next I proceed to take photos that visually supports the documentation. Dress in character I use either dolls or my own body as the models to tell the narrative.
The reason I use my body is; many of the stories are not my personal stories yet by viscerally assuming the character I am immersing myself into another point of view.
The use of dolls and masked faces is always a strong theme in my work. (“We are categorized and our character is initially evaluated by our face, we put our best face forward often disguising inner thoughts and intentions”) The static gaze of a doll or a mask removes the ability to evaluate the subjective cue’s we need for further evaluation leaving us a bit unnerved.
Each photo is staged and then sized. Once I am satisfied with the paper photo’s a wooden version is cut and the photo is applied to the wood creating a base relief wooden collage. The characters and mixed media are then screwed and glued on to the wallpapered backdrop. I find the rigidity of defined boarders suffocating therefore these pieces are intentionally not regular in shape.
A bit about each of these piece’s:
“TWO BOYS DIED TODAY”
This is my response to Christopher Johnson’s story of how as a young man (boy) he fired the final shot killing another man (boy) in a gang related situation. If interested I will send you the transcript of his performance. I am the model for both the shooter and the boy that died
“WILL I LIVE TO BE 20?”
This is the 2nd work based on a Christopher Johnson story.
Synopsis of the story; as he is walking his 12 year old daughter home from dance class she asks him (as a young black girl) “Do you think I will live to be 20? He relates that he had to long of a hesitation in his response and his daughter stepped in to say I am not sure either. I am the model as the young dancer.
“THEY TOLD ME THIS WAS SCHOOL”
The documentation in this piece tells how very young children in China are sent to school which are actually sweatshops. I am the model at the sewing machine part of my blonde hair is showing behind the asian dolls face.
“FASHIONABLE AND AFFORDABLE”
This piece was a direct response to the question of birth control being subsidized and available to all woman. There is a small mirror for a face…you are the model. The supporting text relates to the history of chastity belts which actually were not used in medieval times but are extremely popular now as a fetish item.
“IT’S ONLY A RED BUTTON”
My finger placed on an ordinary red button. The supporting text names the 5 countries that have the RED button that have the capacity to end the world as we know it.
“WHERE DID YOU SAY I CAN REFILL MY ICE BUCKET?”
I am not the model in this piece. A very stylized polar bear wearing black boots. There are 2 stories being told here;
1-The shrinking of the world’s icebergs
2-Polar bears have jet black skin masked in beautiful white fur, It is to protect their beings yet I found it to have a subtext pertinent to racism.
