Artist Statement

The previous images were created for my thesis exhibition at Texas State University this past semester.

I’m My Type

Stereotypes standardize and simplify one’s conception of groups, based on prior assumptions. Being multiracial has meant having to experience this often as well as having people select one race by which they can identify me as being. In reaction to and in investigation of these experiences I have dressed up and photographed myself as some of the stereotypes of each of my racial backgrounds.

From the collection of self-portraits photographed I composed a collage of stereotypes for each race. I then scanned these collages to make new two-dimensional images. In the process of wearing these costumes I became disabled in a way. When a self-portrait is taken the subject has some control over how he or she will be perceived by the viewer, taking these images felt completely different. There was a psychological barrier and disconnect between the physical objects and myself. The stereotypes immediately project something to the viewer. Wearing these layers and layers of stereotypical dress that I don’t relate to in any way was something that I felt was impossible to push any part of myself past. The images are the visualization of what mentally goes on with stereotyping, but actually experiencing this in the process was not something I had anticipated.

What if a person is only perceived as a stereotype? What if a person were merely a collection of stereotypes? How much of a person’s identity can really be placed on race or appearance at all? Physically all these collages are is a collection of stereotypes. A photograph can only be physical unless it possesses some idea or emotion, even so it can be destroyed and then it’s gone. The vast circulation of the photograph in part perpetuates today’s stereotypes. In this way photography is a participant in how people apply racial perceptions and stereotyping. A person’s identity can become or be implied as a character, an archetype, rather than identity being placed in one’s character.