A Complex Identity Within A Simple System
Abstract:
This body of work marks a necessary shift in my practice, representing an attempt to confront the contradictions embedded in my identity as a biracial woman. To exist simultaneously within Blackness and Whiteness. Each piece, an amalgamation of memories to be interpreted by changing times, shifting perspectives, and lived experience. Much like memory itself, their meanings remain fluid, changing as I change.
I investigate the way in which identity is constructed, negotiated, and policed through the lens of popular culture, and more specifically its long-established role as the arbiter of acceptability. For those who exist at the intersection of multiple identities, this “acceptability” is inconsistent, conditional, and often contradictory. To be biracial is to contend with a socio-cultural duality marked by inherited histories of both the oppressor and the oppressed. It is where others choose when and where your identity may feel affirmed, questioned, performed, or withheld; sometimes within the same moment.
Through painting, drawing, screen printing, and collage, I build dense, layered compositions that reflect this instability. Familiar imagery taken from childhood, media, and consumer culture is disrupted by fragments of language, historical ephemera, and personal material. This work holds tension between visibility and uncertainty, between confidence and hesitation, belonging and doubtfulness.
By recontextualizing shared cultural and historical material through a personal perspective, this work challenges perceptions of racial legitimacy and acceptability. Ultimately, it asks: who determines when identity is valid, and what does it mean to belong within systems that were never built to hold complexity?