Art Lend Interview with Jameelah Platt

The Center for African American Poetry and Poetics’ Lend Art Initiative displays work generously loaned to the Center. Currently all the work featured is by local Pittsburgh artists. Our intern Sarah Morris is interviewing these artists to learn more about them and their work. Here, Jameelah Platt gives us some insight:

Sarah Morris
What does being interdisciplinary as an artist mean to you?


Jameelah Platt
Being interdisciplinary means exploring new mediums and content within my work, as well as reintroducing skills with mediums I have learned in the past.


SM
Is there an artist or a specific work that you've loved or that has surprised you recently?


JP
Yes! A few months ago I saw works by an artist named WaveyWednesday. [ig: @wavywednesdayyy]  She showed her works at The Late Space, a new gallery on Penn Avenue in Garfield. It was a wonderful show!


SM
What is a project or collaboration you would love to work on?


JP
Lately I've been thinking and exploring ideas surrounding love. How we love ourselves, our friends, family and romantic partners. The significance of tough love within the POC [people of color] community. What the language of [love] says to others and the multiple translations of this language. I would like to have a solo exhibition exploring these themes, or even a collaborative show with Naomi Chambers, Vania Arthur, and Vanessa German!


SM
How does your work as an artist connect you to your community?


JP
An essential component of my works are the narratives I choose to emphasize. As an African American woman, first I choose to tell the familiar narratives I know within the Black community. Then I choose to tell and explore other stories surrounding POC, gender expectation, social class, beauty, spirituality, and language.


SM
What's something interesting about your artistic process?


JP
My process can be broken down into two components, color and content. I like to look to Joseph Albers’ pieces when I’m feeling stuck about color. My artistic process is often instinctual. I’ve learned to have conversations with my work, literally and figuratively. When you're creating pieces about narratives you have to ask yourself, "Will the audience speak my language?" Then you have to ask the work questions like, "Who are you? Where have you been? Where are you going?" After all of this, then you have to figure out if your work is speaking softly or if it’s not speaking loud enough. In the end you hope to have a great piece, haha, or a disaster.

 

Thursday, February 7, 2019 - 12:15