"Working through a range of media such as sculpture, video, set design, furniture design and performance, Sekhukhuni develops approaches rethinking the mechanics of futurisms, worldbuilding and complicating dominant epistemologies, drawing from gnostic multi-histories and the environmental and physical sciences. A central aspect of my practice is to interrogate dominant systems of knowledge; why it is that rationalist understandings of the nature of our collective reality hold the greatest weight in modern society for example. And especially, to show correlations that can exist between this paradigm and the perspectives of non-western societies that in academia, is often marginalized as alternative, fringe or folk knowledge. This direction frames my interests and work with emergent cultures of technology and the histories of scientific progress."
 

Ellise Antoinette Smith

Artist
Founder of Fatness Fiction
Founder of +Plus Size Magic Radio
Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Indiana University Indianapolis
FatnessFiction.com

 

 

Lies, Eyes, Truths, and Thighs - [Click here to view this interactive artwork]

"Most individuals have heard that bodies come in all shapes, sizes, etc. but I want to speak, through my art, about the experiences of these differences and how it impacts the way people navigate life. I aim to show how the intersection of body type, race, gender, and more create different outcomes and experiences and how it is in fact a part of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). I know what it means to live in a body that is subjected to permissible discrimination because it does not align with what is popular or centered. I use photography as #VisualActivism to intentionally make space for difference. I use poetry as a space to uplift the voices of those who were and are silenced. My purpose as an artist is to showcase the importance of difference without extracting or hiding what society has tried to."