FEMINIST AND . . . Ayanah Moor

 

It seems no matter how 

I try I become more difficult 

to hold 

I am not an easy woman 

to want [1]

             

The walls of Ayanah Moor’s exhibit are papered in words, like the ones above, silk-screened on newsprint in deep reds and browns. They draw observers into the cross-section between race and gender, to somewhere between “a hard woman to love” and “my melanin is relevant.”

Moor’s by and about incorporates the language of poets and emcees, references ranging from Billie Holiday to dream hampton to the musings of Nikki Giovanni’s “Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day.” ­Moor pulls these fragments and phrases together into a unifying grid of silkscreened letters on everyday newsprint.

In Moor’s own words, “My work explores the way popular culture is an articulation of our desires, our fears, our fantasies. It can both reflect and impact the things we want, which is a fascinating cycle.” [2]

[1] http://www.afropoets.net/nikkigiovanni5.html

[2] http://www.cmu.edu/homepage/creativity/2009/fall/ayanah-moor.shtml

POSTED BY KATE Read All Posts by Kate