another exciting discovery

Posted on | May 7, 2009 | No Comments

I was originally forwarded an email about Veronica Stein’s performance-based work a few months ago but she has an exhibition just about to open so the timing is perfect now to post it. She’s a recent college grad about to enter the MFA program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Congrats, Veronica!

Opening reception Friday, May 8th 2009, 5-8pm
African-American Cultural Center Gallery
University of Illinois at Chicago – 830 South Halsted, Chicago, IL 60607

The show runs until 5/31 and the gallery is open from 9:45am – 4:30pm M-F

Veronica Stein, from "Blak is Brite; Performance in Brown"

In a series of 22 photographs printed on fabric, the work is a documentation of a performance piece, addressing issues of space and how one’s personal space either validated and/or violated, as well as issues of how the obtainment of space relates to social construct of race and gender.

Veronica Stein, from "Blak is Brite; Performance in Brown"

Artist Statement, 2008

In my professional and academic career as a practitioner of the arts, my focus has encompassed the conceptual dichotomy’s existent within the societal construct that is race and gender. Through the study of historically traditional methods employed for the execution of self-portraiture, I choose to produce alternatives to this predictably staged and manipulated form of personal representation. In Blak Is Brite, 2007, I explore traditional color theory, specifically the tonal values that the color brown holds within the 1907 Denman Ross nine-step color value scale. In this work, I allow for the deconstruction of racial connotations associated with the word black. In an effort to transcend from the ethnographic, pseudo-scientific existence that is “the Black race,” I explore, through the documentation of physical performance, the spectrum of literal and conceptual tonal values that encompass the brown Black body.

My work is also seeped in the tradition of Black American quilt making. As is the foundation of jazz, Black American quilt making is a symbol of improvisation and artistic waywardness, and has historically been employed as a survival strategy in response African diasporatic chaos. I follow the tradition of my female ancestors; women who were silenced by law and spoke powerfully though the use of clothe. Contrary to these antiquities that are representations of affection, warmth, security and visual communication, my curiosity rests in the conceptual dichotomy emergent as a utilitarian object transforms to that of a non-utilitarian value. Provocative in nature, I place photographic images of on the surface of my quilts. My work is not intended to comfort but rather evoke discomfort, as well as incite a necessary exploration of the affect traumatic events, both current and historical, have on the human psyche. I am consciously choosing to break the silence forced upon my female ancestors.

In an effort to reveal the destructive effects that societal constructs of race and gender encourage, I have chosen to employ the use of “confessional art” consistently within my practice. As a testament that self-sacrifice reigns triumphant, I allow for the unveiling of vulnerabilities existent within myself. As a result, I expose the injurious consequences oppressive social constructs may have on the human psyche, consequences our society has been encouraged to conceal and ignore.

Veronica Stein, from "Blak is Brite; Performance in Brown"

Comments