Artist Statement:
For my dress collage series, I use antique journal papers from 1900 (often in French), botanical prints, rice papers, comics, and other found papers to comment on contemporary life. Text elements frequently relate to outmoded or humorous ways of viewing women or Black people. Working on the series is cathartic, and allows me to question cultural stereotypes and dream in color. Paradoxically, mixing these elements together, and gluing them in place, frees me from needing to have a fixed idea of who I can be.
————
JoAnne McFarland is an artist, poet, and curator from Brooklyn, NY.