Situated inside a photographic tradition while questioning the culture that bred that tradition, Nona Faustine’s practice walks the fine line between past and present, beginning where intersecting identities meet history. Exploring her family album in relationship to collective belonging, and self-portraiture in relationship to empowerment, Faustine examines the legacy of trauma, lineage, and history; her body becomes a channel for the known and unknown individuals who make up our past, present, and future. Reconstructing a narrative of race, memory, and time that delves into stereotypes, folklore, and anthropology, Faustine’s works are, in her words, “meditative reflections of history Americans have not come to terms with, challenging the duality of what is both visible and invisible.” Her talk will feature aspects of her practice that challenge the visual writers of history and summon viewers to question our own roles in making and unmaking historical wounds.

For more information, visit artsdesign.berkeley.edu.

Presented by the UC Berkeley Department of Art Practice.