Practice
Practice
My conceptual artistic practice uses the frame, text, and performance to witness and declare.
The Clarence Thomas — Anita Hill Hearings (2020)
The Clarence Thomas — Anita Hill Hearings combines images of Justice Clarence Thomas from the 1991 hearings with excerpts from lawyer and professor Anita Hill’s prepared statement and testimony. The quotes highlight moments during the hearings when Hill was forced to take responsibility for Thomas’s actions. Particularly poignant is the moment when Hill states that she “attempted to end the behavior,” i.e. Thomas’s behavior, as if she could have or should have taken responsibility for behavior that was external to her. While Hill is remarkable for making a public statement that staunchly held Thomas accountable, she was also compelled to make gestures tantamount to public apology; this is one way in which she was punished for speaking truth to power. Coupling Hill’s remarks with images of Thomas, this project aims to creatively redress this historical event by suggesting that any public apology should (have) come from Thomas. The Clarence Thomas — Anita Hill Hearings extends the work of Jordyn Woods Shares the Truth (2019) (see below), exploring further the ways in which misogynoir forces Black women to serve as proxies for Black men’s morality, and the public scrutiny under which Black women, rather than the involved men, are routinely placed in the wake of sexual scandal. This project was circulated on Twitter and Instagram on October 28th, 2020.
nonconsensual photography (2019)
On a visit to the 2019 Faith Ringgold exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, Ifeanyi Awachie and writer Derica Shields were photographed by white gallery visitors three times without their consent. Nonconsensual Photography is a performance that allowed them to articulate and respond to the experience and seek recourse where no other recourse was possible. The work was informed by artist Hamishi Farah who was present on the day and further developed through hooksian and “fugitive” (to cite Akwugo Emejulu) understandings of Black womanhood. It explores the relationship between arts institutions, Black art, and Black audiences and calls for institutional change.
Published in Arcadia Missa’s How to Sleep Faster “Representation” issue (11, Winter 2020)
Jordyn Woods Shares the Truth (2019)
Jordyn Woods Shares the Truth is a series of photographs of Cleveland Cavaliers player Tristan Thompson overlaid with quotes from the March 2nd, 2019 episode of actor Jada Pinkett-Smith’s Facebook TV show, Red Table Talk. The episode, which hinges on a conversation between Pinkett-Smith and model Jordyn Woods, took place following accusations on social media that Woods had been having an affair with Thompson, who is the ex-partner of Khloe Kardashian. The photo series explores public apology, in particular, the public scrutiny under which prominent Black women, rather than the involved men, are routinely placed in the wake of sexual scandal. The series proposes that Thompson, rather than Woods, should have appeared on Red Table Talk, as Thompson is the party who would have been guilty of infidelity had the affair taken place, and because he is the one who made advances on Woods, according to her remarks. Layering, in subtitle-style text, the questions Pinkett-Smith posed to Woods over images of Thompson, the photo series restages the conversation, creating a virtual space in which Thompson is the individual who, in Woods’ words, is “put to the test.” Woods’ absence from the images is a suggestion that rather than leaving Black women to serve as proxies for their morality, Black men should be held accountable for their actions. Jordyn Woods Shares the Truth was circulated on Twitter and Instagram on April 24th, 2019.
