PRETEXTS is a series of mirrors and letterpress prints that challenge historical and contemporary representations of America that elide the country’s inherent racial complexities. 

The hand-silvered, obliquely engraved mirrors pose evocative statements to viewers that implicate them through reflection—incorporating them literally and figuratively into the exhibition’s exploration of visibility. Meanwhile, the letterpress prints describe scenes from a single 1960s-era archival home movie. Printed on salvaged offcuts from her mother’s print practice, these works use language and material to extend my examination of how histories are recorded, emphasizing the gap between lived experience and representation. The texts for both the glass and letterpress works draw from the research and writing I did in preparation for my film we turn to time, including her 2018 lecture-performance at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, THIS IS A FILM. 

Through the full series, I seek to dismantle conventional national narratives to offer a nuanced portrait of American selfhood—one that defies simple categorization.

Press