EXHIBITION STATEMENT

Babygirl—A Rite of Passage, is a metaphorical pilgrimage of myself born into the suburbs of Tennessee with XX chromosomes, called ‘girl’, grown as ‘woman’, now living in New York. Having passed through several rites of passage to become ‘woman’, this body of work enacts a self-composed rite of passage to become ‘artist’. However, through the study I keep, the processes I explore, and the mediums I interplay, this creative crossing examines the rites of passage I’ve completed as well as the ones that lay before me.

In contemplating what lies ahead, I envision a daughter I don’t have to dig into what has been for women before, what has been for me, what is for us now, and what will be for her. Abstractly interweaving different mediums such as paint, fabric, collage, poetry, and text, I blur conventional boundaries to create a unique, personal language to speak with her. This language manifests in wall hangings, wearables, paintings, poems, and texts, culminating in a body of work for her to experience as if immersed in a visual journal.

Displaying this multi-media dialogue in the public’s eye, I simultaneously converse with a larger audience. Drawing from historical and contemporary art, text, and diverse perspectives in the works, I invite viewers to engage in an intimate questioning of what has been, what is, and what will be for themselves. This introspection dually points to the existential question: what has been, what is, and what will be for all peoples, reflecting back on the self and asking: what rites of passage will I fulfill, dispel, or conceive to mold the future?