Defense Date

2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts

Department

Photography and Film

First Advisor

J. Molina-Garcia

Second Advisor

Paul Thulin-Jimenez

Third Advisor

Dawn Johnson

Abstract

I've always been intrigued by the ways in which the notion of flight has been used to describe the movement of Black people, both literally and figuratively. In many instances, flight performs as a double entendre, embodying multiple meanings: to escape or to transcend. The fluidity of its definition prompts a reflection I’ve been wrestling with as I move through the world: Are Black people in a perpetual state of flight?

In my thesis exhibition, Call for Me When You Get There, I use the precarious state of flight as a means to explore the complicated choreography necessary for navigating the pervasive spaces and systems shaped by anti-Blackness. To exist in these spaces requires continual negotiation and response with our bodies, even to the point of exhaustion. Yet, it is within this perpetual and arrhythmic movement that our bodies must engage in order to survive and retain self-possession.

As these anti-Black spaces and systems persistently weather our bodies through surveillance, domination and spectacle. I am interested in the forms our bodies make in the midst of this weathering. What emerges when our bodies refuse these conditions? And what forms arise when our bodies move in unison?

If the work from my exhibition represents the culmination of my experiences, observations, and inquiries during my time here, then this paper should serve as a testimony to the entry and exit points in my research, the trail of fears and anxieties that present themselves before me, and the seeds that have been sown into the ground from which I am growing. Comprised of dialogues between strangers, friends, and collaborators; transcribed and divided into four parts: Shedding Anchors, Wall Whisperers, G(gestural)- Codes, and Godspeed.

Rights

© Jessica Tifase

Is Part Of

VCU University Archives

Is Part Of

VCU Theses and Dissertations

Date of Submission

5-9-2024

Available for download on Friday, May 09, 2025

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