The Makers Mask, 2021
Photography pigment prints, 30*30 inch each
Slemmons camera collection
Those who wear the mask lose their human life and turn into the spirit represented by the mask, in this case, the Making Mask. The Making Mask represents supernatural beings, ancestral, fanciful, or imagined figures. It masquerades, hiding identity while expressing one’s freedom of voice, emotions, and opinions without judgment; the Making Mask celebrates virtue in ambivalence. It also celebrates the ‘if’ in creating, a concept that acknowledges the uncertainty and risk inherent in the creative process, and the potential for unexpected and unique outcomes. The view camera, a key tool from the Rod Slemmons Camera Archive that I used to create the works in The Making Mask, is more than a mere machine. It is a gateway to mystery and experimentation. Despite its unwieldy, bulky, and awkward nature, the view camera encourages a return to play, chance, and experimentation. In its pure analog state, it compels the maker to shoot blind, free from the safety net of digital assurance. Both the Making Mask and the view camera serve as portals to other worlds, just beyond our grasp but firmly within reach in our collective imaginations.
I am most interested in the intersections of masculinity, familial relations, and the artistic and intellectual pursuits of black culture, particular as this culture intersects with and informs the larger culture. Through photography, video, and dance/performance, I seek to investigate and question the norms and customs that govern our understanding of each other, our families, and the myriad of societal struggles and triumphs. I studied fashion, house music and dance club culture before receiving a MFA in Photography at Columbia College Chicago, where I currently serve as an adjunct professor and a teaching artist at the Center for Community Arts Partnership at Columbia College Chicago. My work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, with works in the permanent collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art, Chicago Bank of America LaSalle Collection, and Museum of Contemporary Photography. I was awarded the: Joyce Foundation Midwest Voices & Visions Award, the Artadia Award, The Swiss Benevolent Society, Lucerne, Switzerland Residency and the 3Arts Teaching Artist Award. I participated in Light Work’s Artist-in-Residence program in July 2013. In 2016 the first edition of my monograph In The Company of Black was published and was shortlisted by the Aperture Foundation for the 2017 First PhotoBook Award.