Ambiguous Loss
Ideologies of justice and humanity ring the purest intentions yet complex and interconnected systems of violence inundate our global society. my thesis recenters Black and Brown folx at the root of human rights ideology and education by exploring the ambiguity and surreality of personhood and identity despite its material impacts through a body of mixed media work and narrative. Reserving mourning for those buried in the ground or the ocean ignores all the diverse ways we die under the oppression of racial capitalism. Pauline Boss and Celia Falicov use the term “Ambiguous Loss” to describe an uncertain death in their work. However, I assert that Ambiguous Loss represents how Black and Brown folx have collectively and individually grieved a person/a people with no exact name, face, or birthplace. We profoundly grieve a person that ‘barely’ existed and mourn their memory as if they were an extension of our current selves; that lack of closure creates a paralysis within Black and Brown personhood and the radical potential of human rights rhetoric and work today. 
For all the (Black) Babies that couldn’t keep warm
Crochet Performance Piece, 2021-
I’ve been working on this blanket since the Fall of 2021 and will continue working on this piece till the day my show premieres. The number of people who were victims of structural oppression is truly unknown, but I know they existed. Every crochet knot on the blanket represents a life throughout this long space and time continuum that was unjustly cut short. The blanket reflects the image of a long river to demonstrate the overwhelming magnitude of victims and the long history of violence against the innocent.
Bloodied and White-Washed Soap (series), 2023
Carved Ivory Soap
Inspired by the work of Christina Heatherton, this work takes a mundane object like soap and investigates its connection to oppression and colonization. Historians have quite literally sanitized the history of soap to remove any traces of labor exploitation and craft the image that Americans have been making soap in their houses since the Mayflower. In actuality, White families outsourced the labor to obtain soap. With the widespread commercialization of soap, there arise narratives of Hygienic Motherhood and comparisons of Blackness with dirtiness.
A womxn’s condition
I created this exhibition at the start of my artistic journey during my senior year of high school. These multi-media artworks explore the struggles and fluidity of womanhood, especially as a Black woman in this world. What defines a woman is self-determined and vastly different for every woman, but universally we are silenced. This exhibition is titled postmortem, but I feel it truly reflects a teenage girl trying to navigate womanhood during the late 2010s. (spring 2019)
