GARMENTS
H.U.D.
In The Palm 2019-2021
a rapid accumulation of painterly scenes serves to record commercially driven contortions of the self. A set of serial images convey intimate aspects of the artist’s cultural and economic identity. When viewed in mass, the paintings act as a catalog of first person activities. Each painting shows a new mechanism nestled within the frame of a hand being manipulated in anatomically familiar ways.
Generative Generosity 2020 – 2021
This is a work in progress
A serious reframing actor on our global economy is forcing communities to adopt modes of generosity and social practice to survive and make rent. In the US those advantaged, propelled and protected by white western capitalism, like myself, are positioned to take accountability for the history and continued violence against all BIPOC individuals including femme, queer, disabled, and incarcerated folks. As an artist, coined recently as a “maker” or “content creator,” I create commodities from thin air. Interpretations of the world sold for 500% of its creation cost, excluding some ephemeral concept of labor. As of 2017, 34% of census taking members in the US economy are counted as “gig-workers” according to the ILO. What qualifies as gig work? For the concept of generative generosity we will be focusing on the project oriented temporal and fundamentally insecure portion of the gig workforce and what it implies for those un/underemployed and those who are “meaningfully employed” in my country, The United States of America. A maker generating wealth by exploiting a marginal material cost of production through what is often, and valuably so, an act of love, is a super power in capitalist society. A feat of institutionalized manipulation that empowers and encourages a wealth gap within an occupational community. There are a documented 21 artworks that during their life had sold for over $1,000,000 all of which occurred over the last 40 years and the price ranges from 1mil to 90mil. In the last 5 years, 3 of these 21 works have been sold for a number above 50mil by cis-white-men. To put this in perspective as a white assigned male fine arts painter showing and networking I have made just above $3000 this year in art sales and approximately $15000 in other fine art related gigs which have been largely unaffected by the covid-19 pandemic as the months went on. I am a privileged member of this US art community and 18,000 is still just above 50% of my city’s estimated cost of living. This may be a look into the disparate future of other project-based temporary hire occupations that are increasingly reliant on brand and self commodification to evaluate their services. The hopes of generative generosity is to explore a world and reorient our perception of services as services not products.
Mazes.
DVY 