Date of Award

Spring 5-13-2024

Author's School

Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

Author's Department

Graduate School of Art

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Visual Art

Degree Type

Thesis

Abstract

My work raises critical questions about Black history, race, gender, beauty, and privilege. My practice also highlights the intersectionality of colorism and racism. I use materials such as cardboard rectangles with handwritten words, brown paper, doors defaced by scratches, fire, printed images, newspaper, and projected photographs to ask and answer those questions. I also use Work and Travel documents, broom and brush bristle, mop fiber, towels, and audio recordings of oral histories to exhibit invisible scars wrought by racist actions as physical and material manifestations.

My practice began after experiencing racial discrimination for the first time on a US work program where I worked as a room attendant at a hotel in Wisconsin. Being from Jamaica, a predominantly Black society, this was shocking and so I began to use art as therapy to aid in my healing. I started to incorporate the cleaning tools that I used on the work program to create art that showcased how the trauma of racial discrimination affected me psychologically. Since being in Saint Louis my art focused on historical issues that affect the Black community such as the East St. Louis Race Massacre in 1917, the Michael Brown shooting in 2014 and the demolition of the Pruitt-Igoe Apartments.

Researching the history of Saint Louis made me curious about Jamaica, my home country and the potential hidden histories or public secrets in the society. Colorism stood out so I created art about it through sculpture, photography and sound - Transcending Hues (Protest Wall, 2023 and Vanitas Photographs, 2023. One of the most valuable things that I learned from researching colorism in Jamaica is my privilege, since I am a light-skinned person, which led me to question my Blackness in my home country versus in the US.

My current work also asks, how can I adjust from being in a predominantly Black society from birth to now living in a primarily white nation? Did I have to experience racial discrimination in the US in order to realize my privilege in Jamaica? How do I heal from the psychic scars caused from racial discrimination? Am I hiding? What am I hiding from?

Language

English

Program Chair

Lisa Bulawsky

Thesis Text Advisor

Heather Bennett

Thesis Text Advisor

Meghan Kirkwood

Faculty Mentor

Heather Bennett

Committee Member

Jennifer Colten

Committee Member

Maghan Kirkwood

Committee Member

Geoff Ward

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