Artwork
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Artwork 〰️
SELECT WORKS from Giselle Bailey’s interdisciplinary art portfolio. Her practice, which explores cultural transformation, is informed by her transient upbringing across the diaspora, her spiritual practice and her familial heritage in the Rastafari movement.
The imagery shown are pieces included in Sunny Smith’s exhibit and its accompanying book, “The Compass Rose,” originally shown at Fort Mason Gallery 308 in San Fransisco. “Shadow Work,” (above) is a video projection piece created in collaboration with Giselle Bailey and artist Sunny Smith. The work is inspired by rituals and visioning practiced between the two artists during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Madam Katrina,” (image left) is part of a series that fuses imagery from black photographers and news archival to reimagine mythological stories around recent cultural events. “Brother’s Bond,” (image right) is accompanied by writing that explores symbols of freedom and brotherhood.
Artist Statement.
I use my roles as an artist to ignite revolution within pop culture. My purpose is to sanctify the identity of the black diaspora. I create art movements that disrupt dominant histories and use the power of the black imagination to provoke new expressions of cultural liberation.
My practice revolves around 5 tenets of rebellion~ seduce pop culture disrupt binaries invoke ancestral beliefs unleash the black imagination revere revolution
My Jamaican heritage and childhood living in the Cayman Islands, the UK, and the Bahamas makes me sensitive to the experience of not belonging and aware of the power of that perspective. Many waves of cultural change have been led by “outsiders” who challenge the status quo.
My mission is to create projects that shape the cultural zeitgeist as my family did. My grandmother and her brother’s leadership in the Jamaican Rastafari movement is the blueprint for my work. They rejected the colonial customs they were born into and created a new culture and aesthetic that reflected the complexity of their experience as black Caribbean youth. Their voices joined with their peers to create a wave of cultural transformation. My voice joins with collaborators to create movements of artful unruliness aimed to achieve liberation for all people. I believe there is no harmony without revolution. Harmony is: everyone has spoken.