Inhumane
2021
Digital photography
Digital Manipulation/Photoshop
Inhumane features manipulated photographs next to the original image of statistics about violence against Indigenous women painted on an Indigenous (my own Navajo) body.
The painted statistics circle around the knee and underneath the eye, invoking the imagery of face/body paint often associated with Indiginiety. In one photograph, the corners of traditional white and orange Navajo moccasins can be seen. The original photographs were manipulated into monsters made of flesh to showcase the dehumanization one may undergo after experiencing violence.
The mostly illegible statistics are spread across the bodies of the “monster” and bring up the question of intergenerational trauma and whether or not survivors of violence can become perpetrators of violence. One of the monsters resembles a spider, calling to the Navajo Spiderwoman motif. Either way, one forcibly undergoes a metamorphosis after the experience of trauma.
The painted statistics circle around the knee and underneath the eye, invoking the imagery of face/body paint often associated with Indiginiety. In one photograph, the corners of traditional white and orange Navajo moccasins can be seen. The original photographs were manipulated into monsters made of flesh to showcase the dehumanization one may undergo after experiencing violence.
The mostly illegible statistics are spread across the bodies of the “monster” and bring up the question of intergenerational trauma and whether or not survivors of violence can become perpetrators of violence. One of the monsters resembles a spider, calling to the Navajo Spiderwoman motif. Either way, one forcibly undergoes a metamorphosis after the experience of trauma.
