Americana 2013/2014
Americana continues to investigate multiple histories and identities, specifically as it relates to American identity formation. The work incorporates images of astronomical objects and large areas of the night sky, microscopic pictures of melanin, and stem cells continuing the micro/macro relationship within the work. Framed in a classical oval reminiscent of Victorian photographic portraiture, the work references the biological (eggs, cells, etc.) as well as the scientific (slide gels, medical/scientific slides) and illustrates implicit and explicit identities integrated within one individual.
Relating the pixel, used in digital imaging with an organism's observable characteristics through the consideration, exploration, and manipulation of ethnic patterns, astrophotography, and metaphor the work illustrates multiple histories integrated within an individual. Codification is also investigated visually, relating the pixel to "building blocks" of both the digital medium and conceptual framework.
Through the merging of images, I seek to create a hybrid, which exposes the shifting of identities in relationship to both historical and social political understandings of American history and citizenry. Using my own family history as a template, I explore the relationship between the indigenous and the diaspora, linking the histories between both Native American and African American as central to the formation of the Americas as an economic, political, and cultural force.