Featuring: Mengwen Cao, Naima Green, Melinda James, Nancy M. Musunguzi, Tara Pixley, Charmaine Poh, Gabriel Garcia Roman, Tia Thompson, Ka-Man Tse, Brian Vu, Justin J Wee, Elizabeth Wirija, Salgu Wissmath
This series of photographic and filmic portraits of queer people of color grows from a simple inquiry, a desire to envision the theoretical as material: What is queer? What experiences and bodies are obscured by certain notions of queerness writ large in the cultural imagination?
To “queer” has gradually become an academic catchphrase, a call-to-arms and an intervention intended to destabilize normalcy. “Queer” is many things to many people across various contexts. As such, the queer lived experience is beyond blurred. It now signals intersections of gender, sexuality, race, (dis)ability and various other modes of being. Yet, certain racial and gendered embodiments have achieved their own level of “normalcy,” rewriting what LGBTQIA is in their own image, adjusting the social lens to keep themselves primarily in focus.
A parallax is the effect whereby the position or direction of an object appears to differ when viewed from different positions. By portraying individuals who occupy the intersection of queer embodiment and blackness/brownness, who defy the accepted binaries of gender and sexuality, these portraits provide a rare, alternate view of the contemporary queer experience.
Organizations
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The Authority Collective
The Authority Collective is a group of womxn, non-binary, and gender expansive people of color, reclaiming our authority in lens-based visual media. As professionals in the photography, film, and VR/AR industries, our mission is to empower artists with resources and community, and to take action against systemic and individual abuses, in the world of lens-based visual work. Our goal is to remove barriers to access for BIPOC entering editorial, journalism, documentary, commercial, and fine art careers.
The Authority Collective connects our community members with job, mentorship, networking, and professional development resources. We look to shift the power dynamic in traditional and independent media, so that the stories we tell, represent the true diversity of our world. We are establishing our power, to set standards that challenge colonial narratives, and the notions of success.
Parallax
archive
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Photoville LA
Featuring: Various Artists
Curated by: Mengwen Cao Tara Pixley
Presented by: The Authority Collective
Locations
View Location Details Annenberg Space for PhotographyCentury Park,
2000 Avenue of the Stars Los Angeles,
CA 90067
Location open 24 hours
Related Events
Apr
282019
Walking Tour with Mengwen Cao, Authority Collective
Tour Photoville with Mengwen Cao, artist and co-curator of the exhibition by Authority Collective, a group of womxn, femmes, trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming people of color reclaiming their authority in the photography, film, VR/AR industries.
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