Artist In Residence 2017

POSTED ON: December 15, 2017

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By Florine Demosthene

I chronicled my journey through West Africa in a series of drawings entitled The Capture. These mix media pieces, textual mélanges of ink, oil, graphite and charcoal, depict voluptuous female figures amid a strange world of decay and destruction. The Capture was the initial phase to constructing a non-typical black heroine persona. By delving into the subconscious mind of a fictitious black heroine and the ephemeral quality of her thoughts and experiences, The Capture was an attempt to structure a new mythology that explores black female sexuality and sensuality.

The most recent works, The Burst, moves within the internal search of the heroine. The figures are depicted in dream-like spaces, where the main protagonist entertains a multitude of emotions and genres, bursting forth with new possibilities and ways of exploring herself, both physically and sexually. This series is a dichotomy of possibilities, intertwining seductive nuances while simultaneously playing with viewer’s thoughts.

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.