Keisha Scarville b . United States 1975 ; works in New York
Untitled # 3 , 5 and 1 ( left to right ), from the series , Mama ’ s Clothes , 2015 Archival digital print Courtesy of the artist
Keisha Scarville ’ s Mama ’ s Clothes pays homage to her Guyanese-born mother . The lush , organic landscapes of these images , shifting between Guyana and the United States , hold emotional and geographical significance for the artist . Of her mother ’ s dance between transient spaces , Scarville shares , “ She maintained a connection to the land of her birth , firmly planting one foot under a tamarind tree in Buxton and the other , rooted on the rooftop of an apartment building in Flatbush .”
Grappling with “ a sense of displacement and an internal fracturing ” after her mother ’ s passing , Scarville looked to her clothing of bright colors , strong prints , and long flowing fabrics for meaning . In this triptych of self-portraitures photographed in Buxton and Brooklyn , the artist drapes and layers her body in her mother ’ s clothing as well as fashions masks and veils to cover her face , which is always obscured . “ I wanted to ease the anxiety of separation by conjuring her presence within the photographic realm ,” Scarville states . “ I allowed the assemblage of clothes to drip off my body as though it were a residual , surrogate skin .”