Paper Thin Boundaries

Archival Pigment Prints, 24” x 36”

2011

The title of this series refers to personal boundaries- the psychological space that we use to separate and define ourselves as distinct from one another. Using my own body in the work, I am identifying with the need to give voice to one’s identity through visual representation. The source material for these digital collages are the many images of graffiti- tagging, sgraffito, handwriting on walls, murals in addition to natural landscapes and self portraits I photographed during an artist residency in Europe. The graffiti imagery that merges with the landscape surrounding the figures expresses the silent, divergent voices that call out anonymously, as cries for help or contestation, or as powerful assertions of self and identity. Through representations of the black female body, landscape, and urban graffiti, I explore a relationship with the self in the shifting physical, social, and psychological geographies of the city and nature.