Artist Statement
And still, the woman, the soft fire woman grows till tall, till broken, till strong. She clasped her hands and screamed to God and prayed that the sun remain; even if it burned her, even if it burned you, even if it melted the shadow from our bones. She prayed you the summer, breathed you in like solace (you, with your scar tissue body). But still, you outgrew her in you sleep without enough language to thank her. This, is what the sun won’t tell you about her body and all the things it carried.
"The things it carried" is a portrait of a body in process. It is peeled back body, unreleased body, dissipated body, healing body, courier body, forming body and much much more.
This self-portrait series speaks on the vastness that exist within my body, its abilities, its burdens, its strengths, what it holds etc. I created this work as part of a documentary series where I explore the stages and process of my current existence.
Use the arrows to slide through to see all the images.
Artist Biography
Arit Emmanuela Etukudo is a Nigerian-American self-portrait artist whose practice focuses on the simultaneous invisibility and hypervisibility of the self, body and existence. She earned her BA in Cinematic Arts and minor in Creative Writing from University of Maryland Baltimore County in 2016. She then earned her MFA in Fine Art from Nottingham Trent University in 2019. During her MFA study she took an Erasmus at École Supérieure des Beaux-arts to expand her research. Her work has earned her achievements such as the 2019 NAE Future Exhibition Prize, the 2017 Indie Capitol Award for Best Experimental/Animated film, and the 2016 UMBC Senior Exhibition prize for Outstanding Work in Cinematic Arts.
You can view more of this artist's work on her website or via her social media.
Alternatively, you can view her work in SEAS' May exhibition, 'The Face of the Other'.
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