Brianna Mims
Bio
Pittsburgh based artist, Brianna Mims, has been developing a research-based artistic process within this past year. As a Psychology and Studio Arts double major at the University of Pittsburgh, she allows ideas of psyche and affect to be the driving forces for her work.
Through photography, drawing, sculpting, and other mediums, Brianna depicts the black female identity as a psychological and aesthetic concept. Her suburban upbringing adds more subconscious depth to her work. Within her creative process, Brianna often struggles with choosing between two audiences. Her “black” audience, which feels familial, or her “white” audience which feels disconnected. One audience that shares in her experience and another unknowing and inquisitive. In the past, she struggled to find where her work fit in but now chooses to use her work to break down these divides for herself and her audience.
Artist Statement
As a little black girl in the white suburb of Lansdale, a sense of identity never came easy. In those years I spent a lot of time feeling “other”. With my only exposure to black culture being domestic, feelings of insecurity, suppressed creativity, and double consciousness began to mount on my head.
Before establishing an artistic practice, cooking was my creative outlet. I began to learn about other cultures through food. Cooking was my one-way ticket out of the bland bubble that was Lansdale and I fell in love with it. Food provided an escape from all these confusing ideas about race and identity that were invading my subconscious.
My past experiences have recently inspired an investigation of my own identity. Noticing a natural divide between childhood/adolescence and adulthood, I slowly became aware of the social implications of feeling other. The pressure to perform for an audience subsided and I started using hair to tell my own narrative.
In my artistic practice, I stay open to a variety of mediums. The richness of the black female identity inspires my artistic intentions. A copious variety of textures, colors, tools, and techniques. Whether using pastels, clay, or literal hair, I investigate ideas of perception, adornment, performance, and perception.
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Double consciousness is a term describing the internal conflict experienced by suborinated groups in an oppressive society. The term was coined by W. E. B. Du Bois with reference to African American "double consciousness", including his own, and published in the autoethnographic work, The Souls of Black Folk.[1] The term originally referred to the psychological challenge of "always looking at one's self through the eyes" of a racist white society, and "measuring oneself by the means of a nation that looked back in contempt". The term also referred to Du Bois' experiences of reconciling his African heritage with an upbringing in a European-dominated society.[2] The term has since been applied to numerous situations of social inequality, notably women living in patriarchal societies.