Taylor Mica Kennedy

artist statement

I create caricatures of people, places and things that act as artifacts of memory: memory based in domesticity, womanhood, and the dynamics of family life as they relate to (or contend with) virility. A narrative of lived history as it happened, heritage as we idealize it and life as we wish it was.

Caricatures are points of entry for larger stories outside of myself; collective histories. The caricatures I cyclically repurpose are specific to my experiences, but act as welcome mats for viewers. They are the 30 seconds of eye contact we make with a stranger on the way to work; unknown, but familial. Caricatures because they are rooted in my reality; beginning as a reflection of a loved noun. But caricatures because they begin to repurpose themselves as they take on personalities of their own. Outgrowing me and becoming independent. Caricatures of caricatures; with no end in sight as I move forward in new narratives that have yet to exist in my nuclear history.

These caricatures exist as drawings, paintings, collages and sculptures that intuitively work themselves into interchangeable mixed media installations. Materiality being of importance to me as I come from a long lineage of “masculine” construction workers and “feminine” handiwork stay at home mothers. Each installation becomes a surrealist tableau in which the nostalgia of childhood, and confrontation and conformity of adulthood come to layer in the same space. A visual battle of “he said”, “she said” as I give viewers my stylized aesthetic of a child attempting to grapple with adult-only information.

This layering employs figuration of said caricatures through trompe-loeil, decorative pattern, bold color and the pushing and pulling of space and perspective to create an ever continuous, unfolding narrative: one of old and new, one of ephemerality, tangibility and lucidity.

My work is both conceptually and physically temporary and temporal. Temporary and temporal as I battle with my insecurity rooted in the why of creating work. Another line item to add to a long lineage stemming from gender and generational insecurity. I question my role in the making, and the making of these caricatures; I have for years. The answer lies in a memory at the bottom of a long gone yogurt cup: its contents and my answer visually staining a dark parking lot as I digested and viscerally realized them as a cathartic post therapy puking. The enlightenment of knowing that if my power was worthy of being taken by virility, then virility lived in my domestic body. Power (was) and is, mine.

Temporary and temporal because I think of my work as asynchronous chapters within a story that disengages with the reality of time: the evasive, ever present tyrant dictating our lives. Chapters turning sharpness into softness. Repurposing the righteous into ignorance. My work being the opportunity to play with time; upending the precious.

The precious (and its antonym) is of interest to me because of our memory working against us. Our minds encourage the temporary and the temporal. It is said that the more we attempt to recount memories, the more detached they (and we?) become from that moment in time. As humans, we intrinsically hold tight to these precious snapshots as we believe them to be so defining to our characters and how we move within the world. However, we move further and further from that truth the more we look back. That is freeing to me; the idea of the anti precious. If everything has the opportunity for change, then why create in a way that is so permanent? The power of the temporary and temporal are my welcome mat. My point of entry for the larger story at hand.

A story of repurposing. Of recreation.

A narrative of memory and how we remember.