PROJECT: CULTURE: Between Space & Place
CONCEPT:
Space:
a period of time
a limited extent in one, two, or three dimensions
a blank area separating words or lines
a boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events occur and have relative position and direction.
As a multidisciplinary creative, my understanding of the world is rooted in Space. The word “space” defies and defines form, function, and faction [yes, I said faction!]. But space has no mass, thus it is the void we find between what “is”. But what “is” has transient meaning, built out of position, power, and perspective. Space turns into Place through the human urge to categorize, program, and assert meaning.
Through my professional practices as a writer, researcher, media maker, interior designer, and creative, I have noted that between Space & Place, we find Culture [Big C]. Since Culture is nuanced, it creates an opportunity to reimagine what space is through the multiplicity of mediums, contextualized via identity, locality, and temporality.
I have taken this concept, through a casual practice of interpersonal interviews, observation, and pursuing/inhabiting spaces where cultural dialogue [spoken & unspoken] occurs. By creating a series of “vignettes” that exist [& will exist] in multiple mediums, I share cultural narratives that reflect the internal perspective of the BIPOC community. Not as a monolithic lens but as a note of existence we often assign with diminutive importance. The nostalgia-induced conversations that transpired during installation with staff, visitors, and other people popping by, validated that these places [even when repurposed as art] are truly threads of understanding in a web of misinterpretation WE do not subscribe to.
On a personal level, I have always had a complex relationship with space. As I reflect on where I have been, I always characterize how people use space [usually in practically], as a note of their subconscious self [I’m deep like that]. My father's back room, my mother's nest, my grandmother's den, my uncle's man cave, my loves art sanctuary, the rooms that I licked my internal wounds in & became the soul I am today. . . Those spaces are magical tells of life unscripted. It was not until I was an adult that I realized that place and knowing place would connect me to so many people. A People. My People. And even when the feeling of displacement may have kept me away too long, I would always have a shared history.
That is the beauty of it.
The goal of this art experience was to create a communal narrative that values people who have historically been disenfranchised and the places that celebrate their Culture unapologetically. This is where we show that space is only defined by its cultural functionality [place] and programmatically assert that art is a reflection of our experiences [seen & unseen].
This spread is a note of Culture: Between Space & Place.
With special contributions from Ruth Arts + MIAD Artist Grant Program, Vedale Hill [Installation Consultant], /CW Creative Studios - Gallery Space [Installation Location], and all the untouchable living rooms, beauty supply stores, barber shops, and corner stores that have inspired us.
