Maya Brattkus
Marisa Williamson, a New York site specific multimedia artist,
received her Masters from CalArts.
Her project “Slave To A Narrative” is inspired by the story of Sally
Hemmings, who was the slave and mistress of Thomas Jefferson for thirty year.
The work consists of paintings, live performances, video documentation, and
hand crafted work that explores her relationship with her ancestors, known and
unknown, and the consequences of slavery’s narrative as it relates to her. In
2016 she showed her work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, as she
embodied Hemmings and took participants through period styled rooms.
She also created Sweet Chariot, a video scavenger hunt throughout
Philidelphia that highlights the African American struggle for freedom. It’s an
app, downloadable on itunes, and users can reveal hidden monuments in the
landscape of historic Philadelphia.
I thought this piece was absolutely brilliant; by making an app, Williamson
allows millions of people to access her art, and especially in an ever-growing
technological world, it is extremely relevant. By having participants walk
around their own streets in modern time while seeing monuments and markers that
used to live where they were standing personalizes the experience, makes it relevant,
and causes participants to physically step back in time and into the shoes of
those who came before them.
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