A multi-media exhibition exploring the existential ramifications of one’s place within the confines of society and the realization of one’s identity in it.
Artist Statement: ““I Am I Be” came together over the last couple of months. It began with an idea to do a quilt with the Socrates quote, “I ask to be no other than the one that I am” coded into it as a philosophical start point that incidentally became the exhibition’s concluding sentiment.
At the time, I was reading and became interested in the absurdity of a lesser known Abe Kobo novel, The Box Man where there was this phenomenon of people throwing their lives away to live in boxes. In sorts it felt the exact opposite from my condition back in the US. Finally, in recently viewing Jean-Micheal Basquiat’s late work, “Riding with Death”…just the space, the disjointedness/disfiguration, and that drab palette really hit me differently.
The week of accepting this show, I lost my job and with it my next visa, had a relationship I began to become emotionally invested in abruptly end, and just continual problems from back home that served to create this stasis of “I Am I Be.””
