Disrupt Silence , Question the Unspoken
Meza-DesPlas continues to create socially engaged works full time , but feels her activism is also expressed in academic scholarship where she can broaden consideration of these issues .
In addition to making art pieces and ephemeral drawing installations for gallery and museum exhibitions , she writes academic papers for publications and conference presentations in the U . S . and internationally , “ Bringing these issues up in different formats , and different places , [ helps ] to reach a broader audience , to get more people to think about these issues , to keep them at the forefront of discussion .”
When she presented an academic paper in Berlin at the
International Conference on the Image in 2014 , a young woman in the audience noted similar correlations in the world of video gaming . After the talk , she spoke with Meza-DesPlas about the games she played , and shared typical images of video game avatars dressed in sexy attire replete with exposed cleavage and small waists . “ So … your identity-choices are being crafted and [ don ’ t leave ] you much selection outside of this very prescribed idea of what a woman might look like .”
Meza-DesPlas believes true empowerment comes from governing your own body and how it is represented . She disrupts the silence about women ’ s bodies by questioning what is often unspoken . For the artist , noise-making is fundamental to the work of reclaiming control of our bodies .
Berette Macaulay is a writer and award-winning photo-based artist who creates conceptual portraiture and mixed media works using digital and analog work processes . Her work has been featured in exhibition catalogs , books , print and online publications including ARC Magazine , Griffin Museum of Photography , The Other Hundred , Musée Magazine , National Portrait Gallery – London , Strange Fire Collective , OF NOTE Magazine , POSH Caribbean , Skywritings , World Policy Journal , and others . She currently practices and teaches in Washington State . Follow her on Instagram
@ BeretteMacaulay and Twitter
@ SeBiArt . ( Photo by J Quazi Babatunde King )
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