The Beautiful Collection Installation and
Tears, Laugher and Song, Video Art
2020
The Beautiful Collection, Installation, Brentwood Art Exchange, 2020
The Beautiful Collection: a synthesis of artistic practice, mirror work, and video journaling. Originally, I began video journaling as a method of therapy to manage through a traumatic period in my life. I was in search of ways to affirm to myself, the beauty within the world, those around me, and within myself. As an artist, I have always thrived from creating, observing, relishing, and questioning the various definitions and examples of aesthetics within art and life. However, this experience led me to question life.
As I continued, to document, and make video recordings about my experiences, I realized two important things. Although, releasing my pain and sorrow into video, was beneficial, I had to find balance. I found this balance by also documenting even the minuscule moments of joy.
Additionally, my observations and issues surrounding the manifestations of beauty in life were leading to a greater conversation. The philosophy and traditional European or American beauty juxtaposed to the perception of beauty and value of African American women and all women of color, in general, were at the center of the conversation.
In the vein of relational aesthetics, my intent in presenting The Beautiful Collection is to temporarily invite the viewer into a snap shot my environment. The majority of the video journaling segments were taped in my home. The installation includes framed artwork of my own and of other artists (such at Francine Haskins, Viola Burley Leaks, Charles Jean-Pierre, and others), photographs, mirrors, a few additional large-scale items, and other memorabilia.
The Beautiful Collection is a series of photographs and video segments of personal conversation about beauty, being an African American woman, and my daily life. It is a collection of beautiful moments that not only represents my lived experience, it potentiality represents a sliver of the human experience.
Ultimately, this artwork is also about the dichotomous nature of this universe, probing and challenging us all to consider what one should do with grief, pain and or lessons learned.
The Beautiful Collection: Tears, Laugher and Song, Video Art
The Beautiful Collection, Installation, Brentwood Art Exchange, 2020
The Beautiful Collection, Installation, Detail, Brentwood Art Exchange, 2020