Ijeoma D. Iheanacho's Page

“It is axiomatic that if we do not define ourselves for ourselves, we will be defined by others-for their use and to our detriment” - Audre Lorde

The reImagining is an exhibition conceived out of frustration. Frustration born out of not seeing myself, and those that look like me and have lived my experiences, adequately represented in mainstream media, culture, and society. How do you begin to talk about an identity that is placed on you? For Black women, that has always been the question. The reImagining is being created to give black women the right to determine for themselves the images they want representing them, and thus establish and distribute their own identities. The photography created for this show will be the opportunity for 100 Black women to reclaim their identities not just from the world, but for themselves.

Patricia Hill Collins’ text, Black Feminist Thought, addresses the categories these types of misrepresentations create: the mammy, the matriarch, the welfare mother, the black lady, and the jezebel. Each woman will be required to answer three questions: Who are you? Who are you, really? How do you want the world to see you? The answers to these questions will be re-represented in a series of three photographs of each woman. These images will be creations based on your words and my experience as a visual artist. The reImagining will allow us to bring forth your own identity and allow me the opportunity to represent it. Each woman will be represented in triptych form in response to her answer to each question: The “Who are you” being a full front portrait representing the labels society has placed on you thus far. The “Who are you, really” being a profile portrait representing the labels you choose to adhere to. Finally, the “How do you want the world to see you” will be a free form shot composed based on the identity you want to project to the world. These images and their corresponding texts will be curated into a solo exhibition that I hope to not only present in gallery settings, but to also use as a teaching experience for community outreach organizations dedicated to fostering the building of self esteem for high risk adolescents with a focus on young black women. I hope to create gallery tours for these at risk young girls so they can start formulating their own identities at an early age. It is my hope to make the reImagining a larger force in our cultural representation by turning the exhibition into a book format that can have a larger reach as well as creating a website that will eventually let more women not only go online and respond to the themes raised by the exhibition, but to also connect and become a support group to help foster deep connections within the black female community as well as the world at large. I hope to have the final 300 images completed and exhibition ready by April of 2011.

If you would like to be apart of this revolution please contact me at idi_arch@hotmail.com and I will email you a questionnaire and model release form. My goal is to book all 100 models by mid March, so please drop me a line as soon as possible. Please keep in mind that I am looking for the full range of the Black Female experience so don’t worry about preconceived notions of appearances, I am looking for women with something to say in a voice that transcends all stereotypes. I look forward to working with you and even if you are too camera shy to actively participate, please pass this link on to the other Black women in your life ready to define themselves for themselves.