Alisha B. Wormsley
Artist Statement
I am an interdisciplinary artist. My work is about collective memory and the synchronicity of time periods. I recognize past, present and future happening simultaneously.
I use photography, video, sculpture, and sound to deconstruct accepted realities in order to recreate new conceptual mythologies. By layering methods of science fiction, collage theory, and folklore I reconstruct stories, examining themes of gender, class, race and time.
My work has led me throughout the world; collecting stories, researching cultures, participating in myth and ceremony. I collaborate with artists, communities, students, landscapes and history.
I am interested in the human experience. I work to tear down boundaries of forgetfulness. To encourage us to remember one beginning and one end. I examine the connections between these two points. The connections I discover inspire an infusion of both cross-cultural phenomena and popular culture, new fables and new science fictions. Within those discoveries I create other realities, magnifying the lens to look closely at the intentions of realities. This process is present in all my work.
Totems, tarot, bottle trees, mantras, religious texts, mysticism, popular culture, cultural shame, urban legends, childhood memorabilia, funeral rites, folk music (from chanting to hiphop), creation stories and symbols are all my tools to expand on, to alter, to make timeless.
Bio
Alisha B. Wormsley is an interdisciplinary artist and cultural producer. Her work is about collective memory and the synchronicity of time, specifically through the stories of women of color. Wormsley’s work has been honored and supported with a number of awards and grants to support programs: The People Are The Light, afronaut(a) film and performance series, Homewood Artist Residency (recently received the mayor’s public art award), the Children of NAN video art series, There Are Black People in the Future body of work. These projects and works have exhibited widely. Namely, the Andy Warhol Museum, Octavia Butler conference at Spelman University, Carnegie Museum of Art, Johannesburg SA, HTMLES in Montreal, Project Row House, the Houston Art League, Rush Art gallery in NY, and the Charles Wright museum in Detroit. Currently, Wormsley is working on a number of public art projects and exhibitions, namely, The People Are the Light Publication, August Wilson Park, ArtUp South Africa at the Mattress Factory, and Pittsburgh’s Market Square. Wormsley has an MFA in Film and Video from Bard College.
Additional Links
Artist Website
Activist Print | The Andy Warhol Museum
Hyperallergic: Artist’s Billboard Declaring “There Are Black People in the Future” Taken Down by Landlord
