I live in a world that feeds on fears of scarcity, pushes allies into competition, and is fueled by consumption rather than creation. As the daughter and granddaughter and great-granddaughter and great-great-granddaughter of jazz musicians, teachers, social workers, dress makers and field hands, I have the profound privilege of being reminded daily that I am nothing without my collaborators in the creation of joy and abstraction in the every day. In each interdisciplinary work of film, video, performance and text, I am preoccupied with the relationships between person, place, body, technology and history. I push back against scarcity by being devilishly baroque, undermine competition by teaming with those who challenge me most, and treat all of my work (even the consumable parts) as lived aesthetic experiences in which process is barely distinct from product.
Too often I find that experimental filmmakers, video artists and performance artists give themselves over to solitary, auteur, obsessive, and self-involved practices that ignore the pleasure and collectivity that comes along with our transgressions. In my work I maintain a collaborative and participatory sensibility that honors my identities and resists the social conditions that keep people isolated.
Offering Photo Credit: Alison Crouse