"I got eyes in the back of my head"- this seems like it fits the piece in terms of expanded external/internalization of the panoptic gaze, surveillance and blackness.
Materials: Acrylic paint, metal chains, canvas
Dimensions: Various (60in (153cm) x 60in (153cm))
It feels like it works on mulitple levels and encompasses and allows much or enough. A black phrase, and old phrase-brief, famliar and nostalgic to whomever it need be. Literal enough to allow [non- black] people in and personal to me and possibly other black people. This work is about gaze and gazing, using memory and art history as references. This work is commentary on the obession and oppression of looking- of the need to be watchful and its relationship to survival and protection. There is a strong personal story with me in terms of a gaze (black familial gaze) on me and questioning it- being weary of it, ignoring it and more than all not attempting to challenge it (Notes on practice 10/5/22).
I was exhausted from the gaze on me. I was exhausted from the spectacle of my existence.
"Now I lay myself down to sleep. I pray the lord my soul to keep; if I should die before I wake, I pray the lord my soul to take." This is how I have started my prayers before sleeping almost my entire life. This is a family tradition, a passing down of faith- of discipline- of submission and repetition. So, I made figures and gestures on Blackness and rest. Black people and restlessness, an inability to rest when exhausted. While one gazes over us while we attempt to do so- ever present- at all times in need of rest- surveilled at rest.
Sleep and rest where you can find it, preferably where you are comfortable. Where housing is stable, quiet, there is time, leisure and these lie with this piece. I ponder and invite others to ponder your implication to my rest/attempts to rest and its impact on you, me, and us. In communal well being encompassing the past, present, and futures.
Materials: Linen canvas, acrylic paint, pine and oak wood, twine, metal nails.
Dimensions: 78x50x12in (198x127x30.5cm)
Documentation of Exploring Artistic Methods and Physical Activity to Process Various Emotions (#1 & #2)
Dimensions: 60in/152cm x 72in/183cm)
Materials: Acrylic paint, Canvas
These two works were catalyzed by tense emotional states and contemplation continuing to integrate Public health research methods into my practice. I approached these works as opportunities to test artist materials (paint, canvas, body, movement) as variables that would impact various emotions held at the time of the experiments. Parameters of the experimentation included marking only the canvas, ending my physical activity at the end the predefined time period, solitude, only using my feet to mark the canvas, etc. were all used to control the environment of these works. Additionally, I see comparisons to abstract expressionist artists such as Pollock and the Gutai Movement (specifically Kazou Shiraga) in these works a references to gesture. This makes sense in that I focus/emphasize on the process of making opposed to a specific outcome with these works. Though, looking at them from a health research lens the outcome was important to identify and/or define. From a health research perspective art therapy has been used as a tool that may be effective in treating a variety of symptoms, age groups, and disorders.
MATERIALS: Acrylic paint, canvas
DIMENSIONS: 96inx54in (244x138cm)
YEAR: 2026
ADDED INFORMATION: indexical painting completed during private performance, standing on canvas; I move around the canvas on my feet, spreading paint in response to the environment and sounds with intermittent vocal responses as well. The performance ends upon personal discretion. Paint color palette limited to cyan, magenta, yellow, black and white.
