Installation View / Kara Walker Presents: the Colossus of Rutgers / 2019

A Piece of a Monument to Civic Square / Appropriated Art Object / 2019

This is a piece of Alice Aycocks Public art work, The Tuning Fork Oracle. Her project was originally constructed for Bloustien center for planning and Mason Gross School of the Arts, where I attend school. Both institutions are located at Civic Square Building in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Originally the Tuning Fork Oracle had 6 of these globes, two are missing and this one had been resting detached between two others until I took it for this show. I think of her sculpture as a monument to CSB, a building designed by prison architects.

Carrasco / Archival ink jet print on Photo Rag / 2019

The photo on the left is of my cousin visiting my great great grandparents grave in San Angelo, TX in 1986. The photo on the right is a photo I took when I visited the site in December of 2018. My grandmother beleives that the dead live through the memory of the living.

Abandoned Parasol / Parasol / 2019

After visiting New Orleans, I watched Les Blank's 1978 documentary Always for Pleasure. The images in his film depict a New Orleans that is significantly different from the New Orleans that we visited last year with Kara Walker. In the film Blank captures scenes of festival, joy, and a collective pleasure void of any concept of profit or bureaucratic permits. This piece is inspired by a second line parade from his film. New Orleans is special to me because of how the enslaved kept their African traditions alive at Congo Square. Watching Les Blanks documentary it was clear how much the contemporary culture of New Orleans is shaped by the historical connection to Africa.