ARTIST STATEMENT

I currently have two different directions within my work. The first direction reveals a more personal and psychological approach to my work.  I have been interested in identity construction and how who we are is influenced by what is around us.  This construction constantly changes through a dialogue between the self and the outside world.  Visually I see this constructed self as a möbius strip with no distinct inside or outside.  This view has led to a general interest in playing with representing the integral connection between inner and outer.  I find video installations and interactive works as useful ways to represent this connection.  Through the scale of video projections and the feedback that interactive works allow, I am able to directly implicate the viewer, as he/she becomes a part of the piece.

I have also been working within the video essay genre.  I like the in between nature of the form, not quite documentary and not quite experimental video.   I find it is within these in between spaces that we are able to ask important questions about how we construct the world around us.  One of my more recent pieces, “Art, Craft or Soul”, is connected to a series of videos exploring craft and the craft markets in Jamaica.  It addresses questions I have concerning the separation between art and craft and the connection this separation has with class.  It also questions whether constructs such as “Art” and “Craft” help to reinforce power dynamics within a class system that is even more pronounced in the developing nation of Jamaica.

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