
Migration Studies (No. 49, The crime = running, a constellation), pigment print from cyanotype, studio view at Joan Mitchell Center, 2022. Photo by Jose Cotto.
Migration Studies
Migration Studies (2018-present) is an ongoing project. I work with drawing, sculpture, and installation to examine hair care and beauty routines within Black culture as a bridge to themes about inventing our own survival. These routines are rituals wherein we claim beauty standards existing beyond and before dominant narratives. I use the tools of these ritual practices as drawing materials whose histories both trace and extend our lost languages and homelands. These material and formal choices reflect my broader interest in repetition and reproduction as tools of consumer culture and cultural preservation. I am curious about how our personal/private routines (and the attendant products and purchases) live within our imaginations, conversations, and stories while also connecting us to our collective past and future. The art object is the transformative mechanism by which different systems of value become visible and knowable.
Installation views from: Heart Condition (Russo Lee Gallery); Time Being (Oregon Contemporary), SHEEN (Nine Gallery), Portland, OR (photo documentation by Mario Gallucci); PSU 75th Anniversary Faculty Exhibition (JSMA Portland; photo documentation courtesy of Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art); and at (ON DRAWING) exhibit at Littman + White Gallery, Portland OR (photo documentation by Dan Kvitka)