Artist Talk with Alanna Airitam
Portraiture As Activism
Wednesday, October 14, 2020
6:00 - 7:30 PM PDT
On Wednesday, October 14th SF Camerawork was pleased to hear artist Alanna Airitam discuss her practice and how art can be a defiant act of resistance.
“As long as I can remember, I have harbored a strong passion for human rights and a deep desire to remedy the wrongs of injustice. Equal to that was my passion for art. It wasn’t until the age of 47 did those intersect for me and suddenly I realized how everything I experienced in my life set me up to be in this moment.
To my very core, I am an activist. I believe if we don’t tell our own stories, someone else will. I also believe art it powerful and can move people. I use photography as my medium to share stories, generate action, and most specifically to empower and remind people of who they really are despite how history or the media may omit, skew, or manipulate our stories to form false narratives about our humanity.
In this talk, I will dove into how I use my practice as a form of activism and how art can be a defiant act of resistance in a world that is insistent on breaking us down and tarnishing our character and relevance.“
Panel #1, White Privilege Triptych, 2020 by Alanna Airitam
Take a Look Inside, 2019 by Alanna Airitam
ABOUT ALANNA AIRITAM
Questioning generalized stereotypes and the lack of fair and equal representation of people of color in art spaces has led artist Alanna Airitam to research critical historical omissions and how those contrived narratives represent and influence succeeding generations. Her photographic series The Golden Age, Crossroads, White Privilege, and individual works such as Take a Look Inside and How to Make a Country ask the viewer to question who they are and how they choose to be seen.
Airitam’s portraits and vanitas are photographed in studio with minimal lighting rendering a painterly quality to her photographs. The archival pigment prints from The Golden Age series are hand-varnished while those in the Crossroads, Take a Look Inside and How to Make a Country series are archival prints encased in resin and placed in hand-welded frames. All works are produced by the artist in limited editions.
Airitam is a 2020 Critical Mass Finalist. Her photographs have been exhibited at Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago, Quint Gallery in San Diego, San Diego Art Institute, Art Miami with Catherine Edelman, Athenaeum Art Center in San Diego, and Candela Gallery in Richmond, Virginia. Born and raised in Queens, New York, Airitam now resides in Tucson, Arizona.
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