Alexandria Eregbu, Black Object / White Smoke – project, 2015
About:
The act of living through a memory or experience can be just as potent as being devoid of it. I am interested in the ways in which we create stories, narratives, and mythologies to navigate through territories of the unknown. For me, such gestures serve as critical moments of resistance where speculation and re-imagination become coping mechanisms or tactics against trauma and cultural erasure. At this juncture, I recognize my own “unknown” territory as the unbuilt bridge between my Black American identity and knowledge (or lack thereof) of my Igbo-Nigerian heritage. Given this position, my work tends to insert itself at the axis of personal experience and myth. I am often reliant upon the collection of artifacts— objects, popular culture (particularly literature, film, music, and photography), oral narratives, and an attentiveness to current and historical events. These resources become tools that I use to mine and further unpack my fascination with identity, ontology, and the way that the performativity of such, continues to contribute to how we are un/able to move through time and space.(text website artist)