stephanie dinkins
OneOneFullBasket, 2007
3’ X 10’ portraits of local men taken on Jamaica Ave, Queens, NY. These images are the culmination of a process undertaken for Jamaica Flux 2007 an exhibition of public artworks sponsored by The Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning (JCAL). To create these images, I set-up a makeshift photo studio in the shallow alley between JCAL and the abandon building next door. I then spent days trying to convince passersby to let me photograph them and record their attitudes about money and value with my video camera. I spoke to and photographed women and men of diverse backgrounds. Yet, while paring the images down to six, thoughts of events such as the Jena 6 and Sean Bell, pushed men of color to the forefront. I couldn’t help ponder their value as they streamed by me on Jamaica Ave.
Lined up one next to another and juxtaposed against dislocated texts about money I hope these men will raise a myriad of questions about the American experience, or the experience of living in America, as lived by those who struggle to find comfortable space in the conflicted social, cultural and political geographies of America.
