Manifesto (of a subjective artist)
The burden falls on the minority to explain itself to the majority.
I am disillusioned by the relationship between the means of production required to produce images, the privileged position of arbiters who determine which images might be seen and moreover elevated– so often those images prized by the establishment reify their position of power in the world and interest in seeing flattering depictions of themselves.
I am fatigued by the ratio of art that features nude women photographed by men. I’m disgusted that terrorism is understood in wars fought abroad but not behind closed doors on the bodies of women, children and incarcerated men. Both are horrific and unrelenting.
I’m frustrated that a heterosexual narrative is universal and a queer story is specific. I’m disgusted that white is normal and black is racialized, that men and women are treated as opposites utterly fixed in their polarities.
These are lies.
The burden remains on the minority to explain itself to the majority. I am resigned to this inescapable fact.
