Artist: Tracey Keza
Date: 2019
Museum: African Leadership Academy (Roodepoort, South Africa)
Technique: Photography
My work is a cross between fine art and documentary photography that challenge existing stereotypes of the “other.”Through my works, I explore notions of identity, oppression, and expression of marginalized communities with aparticular interest in societal perceptions and the treatment of Black and Brown people.In collaboration with Studio Revolt, I am working to bring Hijabs & Hoodies, my on-going portrait series to citiesthat have a history of racial profiling, hate crimes, and violence targeted towards the POC and Muslim communities.I see the Hijabs & Hoodies series as a community action initiative in which portrait participants become activecollaborators in an “open studio” process. This is not just a large-scale portrait project but rather a deeperinvestigation into narratives and the power to reclaim those narratives. During every single one of my portraitsessions, I exchange stories and engage in active conversations to find out more about each person and the storiesbehind every single face I capture.Artmaking is a collaborative process and every participant becomes a critical collaborator offering their stories,opinions, tears, family histories and ultimately their faces to my project. I haven’t figured out yet what to do with theverbal stories and narratives told to me but I believe that the essence is often captured in my portraits. My black andwhite portraits are exhibited as giant murals– enormous faces with an unavoidable sense of visibility and presence. Iwant viewers to encounter faces and fabrics that draw a range of reactions-depending on who views them. Thelarger-than life portraits demand the viewer’s gaze and attention. I’ve made the aesthetic choice to work primarily inblack and white because I believe that stripping my work of color allows me to focus more keenly on eachparticipant’s humanity and dignity.My goal is to keep traveling with this portrait initiative so as to counter violence with more images of real peoplestanding strong, standing in solidarity with one another, and resisting these dangerous stereotypes –ultimatelyexhibiting these large scale faces to reclaim the gaze and subvert violence. My goal is to humanize people impactedby a broken system that continues to disenfranchise and disembody Black and Brown people. Racial profiling andstate sanctioned violence against Black and Brown bodies have always existed in America, but recently thesebrutalities have been made even more visible through widely shared digital recordings and a political climate thathas normalized the actions and behaviors of White Supremacy. My Hijabs & Hoodies portrait series is rooted in loveand solidarity as well as an attempt to subvert and reclaim the very gaze that have made these garments andultimately these communities “threatening.”
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