Contemplating my feelings of rootlessness, I combine objects and materials to understand a layered memory. Similar to the way my history, our histories, are so layered. My work consists of paintings, drawings, photographs, ornate objects, metal, wood, and thrifted fabrics. These found materials concern class, accessibility and connection relating to family.
Merging objects that hold memory with pieces of my personal archive initiates a way to talk with the past and larger structures that have had influence on that past like imperialism, slavery, migration, colonialism in the histories of the peoples of the diaspora that have been shattered or erased along the way. Accompanied by the familial lore passed down orally. I am combing through my ancestral, genealogical research to unearth my own consciousness to reach back and dig deep to the root, to access the people that came before me.
I think there can be repairing and healing though merging objects with image making, tinkering, and methods of mending. Through these acts there is a release of the inner weight of remembering, the burden of trying to piece us all together. We need to talk about things in our past and what connects us. I view my work as an act of repairing a collective history and aiding in our desire for healing. We will be able to learn from our past in efforts to understand how to approach our future. I want to continue to challenge the fragments of our past we have to work with to heal, and establish a connection through memory and making.
