JALEN ASH

This piece explores years of built in cultural displacement and generational trauma for the women in my family who have been physically and mentally mutilated by seeking community in their oppressor. The pain, the violence, the willingness to dehumanize oneself to fit into the patriarchy stops within me, stops within my sisters, stops within those who learn that existing to fit into an inherently racist and violent system will never heal the traumas that have been passed down and exist within us.

I was raised with Latinx traditions, but I have a blurred and blended background. Being part of a multicultural environment led me to constantly question my identity and worth within each of my ethnicities. This path of longing for validation has influenced and provided strength in my voice as a maker. I am a performance artist and work with mixed media, such as belts and my body, to explore ideas of identity, human qualities, and connection. My work challenges societal labels and allows the viewer to think about their own relationships and interactions with others around them. Using my body as an object, I explore the effects of others verbal and nonverbal judgments placed on my physical self through dance and movement. These performances dissect the idea of the “other” and follow the traces of their identities that complete my own illusions of identity. In these same spaces people give, take, and receive parts of themselves through basic human interactions. These connections shape the foundation for the way we view the world and others. We don’t get to choose certain parts of our identities, but the ones we collect and celebrate from others speaks volumes. My work unpacks and visualizes the idea of these connections and identities existing within our culture today, allowing for a queer inclusive community to arise.

@backthatartup