The Roots I Carry

The Roots I Carry (2024) is a personal work about the complexities of belonging. This multi-media installation incorporates 48 transferred black and white photographs of my friends and I from the past 20 years. The photographs are transferred on a suspended raw canvas onto which braids of repurposed synthetic hair are sewn, resembling tree roots. In the center of the canvas is a video projection of me braiding my son’s hair. The viewers can participate in the work by using water spray bottles to wet the images to see them better. The aesthetic choices are meant to evoke feelings of nostalgia and reflect the dichotomy between skin tones and race, as well as the ‘grey zones’ inter-racial relationships create. The careful, labor intensive, messy and unpredictable process of creation is akin to the nurturing of these relationships. The act of braiding is central to this artwork. Symbolically, braids are a way of building strength, connection and community since fragile single strands of hair become stronger when they are put together in a braid. Braiding for me is an important act of care, it is a bridge that blurs and overcomes racial boundaries, as well as a praying device (similar to prayer beads) I use to pour my devotion onto my loved ones. This installation is both a celebration of 20 years of friendship and a way to process my grief towards the changes and dismantling of what used to be a tightly knit group dynamic. These relationships are the foundation for my way of caring for my loved ones, the way I see the world and how I raise my mixed race son. The clear and active video at the center embodies the present, and how I carry my friends, our history, and this way of caring with me moving forward, whereas the participatory aspect of this work stands as the outsider gaze, who often questions and seeks to understand my belonging within this community of friends.