ARTIST STATEMENT

In a culture that actively marginalizes those who fall outside of the cishetero-normative white standard, my work is an act of resistance seeking to challenge such forces. This objective not only empowers my art but allows it to serve as a catalyst for personal discovery as I navigate the intricate relationships between my body, identity, and the societal constructs that shape them. Through consideration of my own identity as a queer Black individual, I explore my past experience of marginalization within a family system in parallel to the power dynamics present in the greater institutions of American society. This perspective informs on how both personal and collective trauma has influenced my social development and self-concept into adulthood, and is the driving factor that guides my work.

Using figurative ceramics and multimedia casting, I evoke memory and emotion that reflect the instability of my upbringing. I am drawn to the liberating nature of clay as it allows total control of how the themes I investigate are represented. The distortion of form, selective detail, and surface treatment of my sculptural works offer insight to their ideational context. Through casting, I assign new meanings to pre-existing symbols from my upbringing and culture with the aim of reclamation. This blend of texture and media is strategized in support of my conceptual focus of addressing the internal friction between identity, trauma, and belonging.