PROJECTS
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Portrait(s) Divine Mother 2024
"Portrait(s), Divine Mother," featuring 16 photographic self-portraits pays homage to my matriarchal lineage, Caribbean Shaktism, and the profound familial narrative intertwining them. Scheduled for a solo exhibition at BlackRock Center for the Arts this project explores the scarce stories from my mother's childhood, including healing a limp arm through a gold arm offering at a temple in Guyana. Through this endeavor, I aim to honor the spiritual heritage of my family while unraveling the personal significance of our family history. Our ancestral worship derives from Shaktism, a spiritual tradition venerating the divine feminine through goddesses like Mariamman and Kali. Raised in a female-dominated household, I am driven to dig into this practice, celebrating the Divine Mother and its profound influence within our familial and spiritual realms.
"Portrait(s), Divine Mother" utilizes a process of capturing, printing, and scanning self-portraits to engage in a dialogue centered on preservation and storytelling. I pay homage to the vibrant goddesses revered in Shaktism by emphasizing yellow hues, replacing my studio's printer’s black ink with yellow. Finally, I print the scanned images on metal and fabric, further imbuing the artwork with a profound sense of ancestral resonance while transforming the photograph into a three-dimensional object with weight and substance. I aim to evoke a profound connection to my cultural roots and ancestral lineage, celebrating the enduring legacy of Caribbean Shaktism and the divine feminine within my identity.
Before - Part 1:
These works I created before moving back home. I experiment by replacing the black ink in my printer with yellow ink to symbolize the concept of shadow work and the significance of yellow and red hues in the worship of the divine feminine.
The colors reflect the spiritual practices in my ancestral worship, where yellow and red are central in honoring goddesses like Mariamman and Kali.
After - Part 2:
These works were created while caring for my mother before her passing. They incorporate AI-generated hands as a symbolic representation of my mother's story about healing her arm, reflecting the familial and spiritual significance of that experience.
