This body of work misrecognizes cuteness as grotesque. ‘Are we sweet enough for you?’ they ask, as black childhood has always been historically and socially positioned as grotesque if not dangerous, if not nonexistent altogether. With You Darling, All the Time asks who gets to be innocent under white supremacy. It explores inherent biases and perceptions of blackness. It unpacks the framing of anti-blackness as cute or kitsch and how these ideologies become objects that propagandize a nostalgic yearning for the other. That always present stain, still stuck in the muck with them, that strange (malevolent) companion who wants to be together forever, a distorted vision seeing discontent in nothing, imagining red flesh where there’s only cherry pie while hiding bloody fists.
All images taken in installation at Orleans House Gallery.