(RE)STOCK Images
In 2018, I won the Florida Art Prize hosted by the Orlando Museum of Art. The experience was liberating, not just because of the financial award, but because the curators and staff were actively committed to supporting my work through action and dialogue. Associate curator, Coralie Claeysen-Gleyzon, and I have continued building a professional relationship resistant to tokenism and fully invested in the pursuit of transformative experiences for museum patrons and the rigorous evolution of my own artistic practice. We’re cooking up something for September and I wanted to share excerpts from a recent grant application below.
”(Re)Stock Image Collection, is one of two performances I am proposing in conjunction with the "Voices: Critical Conversations from the Museum Collection" exhibition at the Orlando Museum of Art (09/24/20 - 05/02/21). The first, Book Clubbing, will explore the composition of museum patronage, with themes of inclusivity and racial justice. The second, (Re)Stock Image Collection (ongoing until May 2, 2021) will address accessibility and the invisibility of Black people in online stock image libraries, on which I heavily depend to produce my video works, educational presentations, books, and collages. Indeed, over the years I have found it extremely challenging to find images of Black people in online photo libraries, such as Dreamstime and Shutterstock. To remedy this lack of representation, I propose an audience-and-image-building performance that will invite members of the public to come to the museum, stage themselves in one of the many requested shots, and actively become an integral part of the performance, and part of a virtual “collection” I will curate and manage. The (Re)Stock Image Collection exhibit will be located in OMA’s Martha Cotten Gallery (a gallery accessible to all in the museum's main atrium, without the need to pay for admission). Participants who contribute their image to the performance will also receive free entry to the museum. I will publish a list of shots needed and will manage the stock image library.
The performance will enhance OMA's exhibition: Voices, which presents the work of six artists acquired by the Orlando Museum of Art. The works in the Voices exhibition all speak of racial justice, heritage, acknowledgment, visibility, and celebrate an environment where every voice is heard, and the museum is offered as a platform for meaningful and purposeful conversations. In these tumultuous times we are encouraged to turn to art to find answers; to reconsider the museum as a place of solace, questioning, understanding, and ultimately belonging. The followings are some of my goals to provide awesomeness to Orlando through this Awesomely funded project:
Working with the many local talent pools such as: Black Orlando Tech (BOT), the Black Movement Project, The Black Florida Project, and Onyx Magazine, to make local talent shine.
Opening the museum platform to audiences that may never have set foot in a museum before, by breaking barriers of inaccessibility, whether they are perceived or real.
Continuing an ongoing relationship with one of Orlando’s major cultural institutions, the Orlando Museum of Art and contributing to its mission towards an always more inclusive and diverse environment
Contributing a voice to the current and long-overdue reassessment of the visibility and contributions of Black people to the American cultural landscape.”
