"Beyond Simple Equations"

"Beyond Simple Equations" was my senior thesis project from college and it was an investigation into the role and function of “political art.” I’ve always believed that social change requires a leap in the imagination, a process of pure invention; processes which artistic creation can help to articulate and inform. 

Most of my intellectual and academic work as an Africana Studies concentrator had been about challenging dominant constructions of power and knowledge as a means of imaging new possibilities for our world. Given my passion for painting and my concerns as an activist, I attempted to develop a body of work that gave voice and face to alternative ways of understanding the social political reality of U.S. society.

 

I chose the terrain of “race politics” as my subject matter, as a means of examining and challenging power. It is from this terrain that I derived the title for my project; how can we go beyond the simple equations of racial progress, representation, and justice that have been imposed on us in dominant discourse? The question is overwhelming in its scope; my project is a humble attempt to chip away at a small piece of an infinitely complex puzzle.