Photo by 1NMediaSalon
Naked Layers: Imagoes on 1NMediaSalon
Photo by 1NMediaSalon
The Refutation of “Good Hair” is a powerful new project by the brilliant Nakeya B. In this series, Nakeya has chosen to explore the literal meaning of the historically used phrase “good hair”. In her own words, “In each image a woman of color is seen poised upright while consuming a handful of hair. Accompanying the portraits are a selection still life arrangements placing hair and traditional African-American cuisine in the same setting. Doing such suggests “good hair” is nothing more than something to be consumed as if it were food”.
Yes.
(via loveisthewateroflife)
This is a project I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, and it has evolved over the course of a year. It came out of a nude photo shoot Novel and I had talked about doing for this site. The thought of getting naked and exposing myself in that way brought up so many feelings - excitement, fear, dread. I had all of these criticisms about my body, a million little worries and anxieties about how I look and what people would think of me. Doing the shoot and seeing the photos of myself naked was excruciating, intense, and liberating. Having that experience is what led to the creation of Naked Layers.
Naked Layers is a series of vignettes exploring the body in different spaces. The vignettes address various themes - vulnerability, beauty, desire - and share the experience of being exposed, what that means and how it feels. I want to find a way to talk about body image and the feelings attached to that, and to extend those thoughts into a larger conversation. Body image is complex, and encompasses so many things. How do we really feel about ourselves? How do representations and images of us and our communities inform our perceptions of self? How do we heal our relationships with our bodies? These are some of the questions I hope to explore, with honesty and authenticity.
This project is a journey. I invite you to enter this process with us.
Photo by 1NMediaSalon
Friday, 4:30 pm. The first real spring day of the season. The sun has shifted and as I sit on the leopard bench preparing myself for the shoot, I wonder: Why am I doing this?
The truth is, I have been waiting for this moment for months, a year, even. Since I decided to do this project. This is it, I think. Here we go.
The air has cooled and most of my body is in the shade. I feel the breeze on my shoulders. I am waiting for Novel to finish setting up the camera. A part of me wants this to be over, and my mind zooms ahead to when we are finished shooting and I can put my clothes back on. As I sit there, naked, I feel totally exposed. Nervous. Vulnerable.
The feeling of vulnerability can be quite intense. It ranges from a flutter in my chest to full-on panic. I tell myself I am safe, and there is no threat of danger in Novel’s backyard. After all, it’s just us, right? Just me and my girl. And my bare breasts. And thighs. And crotch.
In preparation for the shoot I tweezed my eyebrows, used hair remover on my mustache, shaved my pits and bikini line. But the truth is, it doesn’t really matter. It can’t save me from this moment, sitting here, butt ass naked. With nothing to hide behind. With all of my perceived flaws, internal and external, out there for the world to see. I feel like my insides are showing.
It has been a while since I’ve done something that felt this scary. Where I wasn’t hiding in some way, protecting my feelings. I am reminded of how little I actually allow myself to be completely exposed, only revealing a bit here and there. How much I actually worry about how I look, how I sound, what folks think of me. I feel out of control. It is uncomfortable.
But there is something else, too. A feeling of freedom, a kind of liberation from all that I think defines me in some way. An opening. A call to enter myself, fully, real. This is me and there it is. I am awake.
My film project ‘Naked Layers’ on 1NMediaSalon
NYC:
Stop Telling Women To SmileApril 12, 2013
7-10pm
Fresthetic
552 Grand St, Brooklyn, NY 11211
Stop Telling Women to Smile is an exhibition of new works by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh. An extension of her street art project of the same name, the show will include oil paintings, as well as photographs, drawings and prints. STWTS addresses gender based street harassment. The work was created to be placed in the street - placing the presence of strong women in that environment to combat mistreatment. This show compiles that work and brings it inside to be viewed as a whole. The project has gained attention from The New York Times, HLN, Fast Co., NYU, and more. The work presented in the show includes portraits of women of color as advocates for better treatment of women, as friends, as simply human beings.
The opening will will be held at Fresthetic in Williamsburg, BK, on April 12th, from 7-10pm. The show will feature music from Donwill and Von Pea, and the opportunity for women and men to be photographed with their own captions about street harassment.Tatyana Fazlalizadeh is a Brooklyn based contemporary oil painter. Born and raised in Oklahoma City, OK, Tatyana moved to Philadelphia to attend the University of the Arts, where she graduated in 2007 with a BFA and a concentration in Illustration. She creates oil paintings on canvas, working with figures and portraits to create stunning paintings that capture socio-political ideas. She exhibits her work nationally while also completing illustration commissions for several musicians, films, and books.
Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey,is on view March 21- July 21, 2013 at the Nasher Museum.
The exhibit will travel to the Brooklyn Museum of Art in September 2013, the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami in April 2014 and the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University in September 2014.
Curated by Trevor Schoonmaker, Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Curator of Contemporary Art at the Nasher Museum, this is the first survey of Mutu’s work in the United States, and the most comprehensive and experimental show to date for this internationally-renowned multidisciplinary artist. Approximately 34 works spanning from the mid 1990s to the present, the exhibition will incorporate all aspects of her current practice including collage, drawing, installation, sculpture, performance, video, as well as the unveiling of a new body of collages and her never-before-seen sketchbooks.
Throughout the exhibit there will be a series of events including the opportunity to meet Mutu during the Exhibition Preview and Artist Talk on Wednesday, March 20, 7 PM. You can also screen the The Triptych (which features Mutu and her work) on Thursday, May 2, 7 PM. More about the film in this post from the archives. View a list of other events happening in conjunction with the exhibit here and stay tuned for Mutu’s first ever animated video in collaboration with musician Santigold. You can watch Mutu on African Voices and learn more about her work in this post from the archives.
(via justwannaeat)
What happens if you hand over an empty storefront to 21 different artists over 21 days? Check out our latest post to find out.
(via black-culture)
