What is my work about?
“Everything is everything,” I was raised Rasta and the idea of the connectivity of all things resonates in my work across mediums and dimensions. I make portraits from my subconscious through a process of combined hand-building techniques in clay.
The faces make themselves. I am the vessel through which they appear. As I work, the face that stares back at me is always surprising. I recognize them as extensions of myself. As an Afro-Caribbean, Black American Woman I wear many hats. I negotiate spaces and learn to shift my presentation according to my audience. Like clay, I am malleable.
My work is about my process; it acts as a metaphor for my personal life. Through the process of making, I gain a greater understanding of my internal narrative as it pertains to and reflects my larger social concerns.
Artist Statement
These images are not cast or portraits, they come out of process, hand building in clay from memory. These mask reappear in my practice as video, performance, photography, collage and installation. They are inspired by my dreams and nightmares. Below is the degree of understanding I have gained of my work.
My work is a series of ordinary mythical figurative narratives that explore the body as vessel & attempts to awaken empathy through the referencing of mundane objects and implied ritual. Referencing the melancholy detachment of our over stimulated multiple and fragmented identities these works at once become intensely self reflective and hyper aware of the viewer. They melt before our gaze and consciously push into the territory of the audience, invading the third dimensional space and critiquing it.
Voyeurism is at the center of “Blues Black” as is the pornography of compulsive consumption. I’ve returned to working with molten glass, as it fluxes its liquid unpredictability foretells future floods. The blue is specific to the shifting universality of sky and water. This work continues my exploration of multiple consciousness, code switching, the layering of intellect, and the multifaceted yet incomplete and overlapping paradigms of identity. Metaphorically I create myth utilizing nostalgia, the beautiful and the mundane to explore apathy, inspire empathy and acknowledge the compulsion to consume constantly.
CV
Education
2008
M.F.A. Ceramics, Hunter College, New York, NY
2006
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME
1999
M.S. Art and Design Education (focus in Painting), Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
1998
B.F.A. Painting and Art Education (minor in Cultural Studies),Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
Selected Exhibitions
2015
Analogous, Gallery 221@HCC, Tampa, FL (solo exhibition)
2014
Art of the 5: Brooklyn, Interchurch Center, New York, NY
Shades of Black, The Little Haiti Cultural Center, Miami, FL
Elit-tile: Ceramic Tile Triennial, Museo De Arte Moderno, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
2013
Blues Black and Analagous Antidotes/Anecdotes, (solo exhibition), Hunter Project Room, New York, NY
The Crown Heights Film Festival, Five Myles Gallery Brooklyn NY
Curate NYC top 150, Rush Arts Gallery , New York, NY
Miami Bridge: Cultural Currents, Readytex Gallery, Paramaribo, Surinam
The Bearden 100, beardencentennial.org
2012
Chosen, Artgate Gallery, New York, NY
Get it on the Record , The Visceglia Gallery, Caldwell College, Caldwell, NJ
Living Sculpture II, Cage Gallery, Edna Manley College, Kingston, Jamaica
2011
Black Gossamer,Glass Curtain Gallery, Columbia College, Chicago, IL
Open Studios, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Swing Space, Governors Island, New York, NY
Buy what you Love, Marianne Boeksy Gallery, New York, NY
2010
A.I.R Space, Abrons Art Center, New York, NY
American Ship, Junto Meeting Center, Brooklyn, NY
Urban Jungle, Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, Brooklyn, NY
Wearing Spirit, CCCADI, New York, NY
Art/Works in the Spirit, Union Theological Seminary, New York, NY
2009
Getting A head (solo exhibition), Corridor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
From Africa to America, Iona College Council of the Arts, New Rochelle, NY
2008
Reel Sisters Film Festival, The Kumble Theater, Brooklyn, NY
Breaking Head, Hunter College Times Square Gallery, New York, NY
The Beauty Shop, curated by Derrick Adams, Art Basel, Miami Florida
The Black Madonna, The Rosa Parks Museum, Montgomery, AL: traveling to The National Museum of Catholic Art, New York, NY, Castle Gallery, New Rochelle, NY (2005-2008)
Selected Performances
2012
SUSU, The Laundromat Project, Marny Laundromat Brooklyn, NY
2011
Nuttin Island LMCC Swing Space, Governors Island, NY
Out Damned Box LMCC Swing Space, Governors Island, NY
2010
Putting our Heads together Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, Brooklyn, NY
2009
Getting a Head Corridor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Awards residencies and Fellowships
2015
Curating Fellow of The Thomas Hunter Project Room
2014
International Cultural Exchange to Antigua
2013
Hunter College Ceramic Residency
2013
International Cultural Exchange to Surinam
2012
The Laundromat Project Public Art Commission
2012
International Cultural Exchange to Jamaica
2011
LMCC Swing Space Residency, Governors Island, New York
2010
Artist In Residence, Abrons Art Center Henry Street Settlement, New York NY
2009
Summer Artist in Residence, In Practice at the Rush Arts Foundation’s Corridor Gallery, Brooklyn NY
2007
Hunter College Travel Grant (South Africa)
2006
Camille Hank Cosby Fellowship (Skowhegan)
2005
NYFA New York Foundation for the Arts fellow in Performance Art/ Multidisciplinary Work
Selected Bibliography
2013
Seedo, Steven “Cultural Currents- Miami meets Paramaribo” Paramaribo News, March 5,2013
2011
Foumberg, Jason “Eye Exam: Selling Hot Drama” Art.newcity.com, December 6, 2011
Whorley, Sam ‘Black Gossamer’ explores racial identity through fashion” Chicagoreader.com November 17,2011
2010
Arterberry, Marissa “AISHA TANDIWE BELL DISCUSSES CHASING THE CROWN.” Societyhae.com, May 31,2010 (video interview)
Traven, ABRONS ARTIST “AIR OUT” thelowdownny.com, May 28,2010
Robinson, Kenya“BATH IN A BUCKET.” kenyaworkspace.blogspot.com, April 14, 2010
2009
Romain, Regine. Cumbo, Laurie “DIASPORA DIARIES an educator’s guide to MoCADA artist, NY 2009,MoCADA
Marissa ArterBerry “PERFORMANCE AISHA TANDIWE BELL.” Soul Goddess.blogspot.com, September 12, 2009
2007 Ogunnaike, Lola. “COLLECTIONS: A Museum Grows In Brooklyn.” New York Times, March 28,2007
Lectures / Artist Talks
2013
Miami Bridge: Cultural Currents, Readytex Gallery, Paramaribo Surinam
The Bearden 100, Rush Arts gallery New York, NY
2012
Living Sculpture II, Cage Gallery, Edna Manley College, Kingston Jamaica
2011
Black Gossamer,Glass Curtain Gallery, Columbia College, Chicago IL with Ebony G. Patterson
2008
The Black Madonna, Castle Gallery, New Rochelle, NY
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA, Panel Discussion ‘Racing Yourself’, with Senga Nengudi and Dread Scott
2007
Skylight Gallery, Brooklyn NY, Panel wi/ Sherman Fleming, Wanda Raimundi Ortiz & Keisha Scarville moderated by Wangechi Mutu
Lick. 2 minute clip of a 7 minute video. 2013-14
Ain’t I’m Clean, (video) 2010. 8 minutes.