The work created in conversation with my written thesis, “The Labor of the African American Experience”, is a contemporary installation including both traditional approaches to art making as well as three dimensional structures to frame the work in the context highlighted by the writing. During my time working as an interior/exterior painter, I came to realize the symbolism embedded in the practice of transforming a space. The largest being how the United States is founded on the recreation of a space that already existed, and consequentially how the formerly enslaved had to work for the space to evolve in this country. This inspired me to investigate how the work I create can transform the space and how I would compose such a transformation. In this investigation ones lack of control in the metaphorical and literal space we exist in cannot be ignored, and how African Americans especially are forced to be in constant observation of how we are ruled by this space. We build ourselves up and work towards elevation yet we are judged less by the structural elements of our being and more by the most shallow components of our existence. With our movement limited by the weights of societal burdens, we are discouraged from embracing the fight for cultural elevation and pivoted into an individual labor for survival. How can one fix such large issues that many refuse to even acknowledge are happening? We stand directly in front of them, weathering the storm of emotions about such a sad and unjust reality. Praying that we can be the exception and nothing will tear down the walls to our individual space, even though there is always the risk.
I didn’t create this work as a means of solving the problem or suggesting that I have a solution. The work became a visual representation of my own individual experience that happens to parallel the experience of my community and culture throughout history. I could go into a long ballad about the mistreatments of my people and how it still continues In new forms to this day. However, this work is about understanding the position we are left in because of those negative forces; Seemingly endless laboring towards survival that seldom provides incremental growth, only to be met by a blatantly adverse society. A society that throws rocks and hides its hands, or willfully ignores the existence of such adversities. It is important for any Black person to realize their position in a country with intrinsic values that never included the best interest of Black people. In my opinion, it is equally important for any Non-Black person to see our position, see the adversity we face, and place themselves in-between the two for a deeper understanding of how laborious it can be just to embrace this reality. On either side of the line, one has to have the conversation, that this is indeed the reality we live in, and not many of us get to be the exception.
