Hairtage-Kim Morris-Spring 2021 — Cypress College Art Department

What is beauty, what is beautiful to the world I live in today?

Being a multi-ethnic individual of Creole heritage has played an enormous role in the way I view the world around me. I am of African and European decent; this greatly influences the way I experience society. Through the lens of beauty, I examine my position in the diaspora. The pressure of fitting into what majority culture defines as normal, neater hair, and constrictive body type-casting dictate my daily routine. Tangled in a mixture of black and white are the constant changes in trends and standards layered onto the historical weight of my skin.

Black bodies and culture are heavily commodified, bought and sold since our arrival to American shores. I am questioning the judgment that is placed on not only me, but on those who navigate the world with this same burden. For the majority of black people hair has become a racial identifier, which speaks for us before we have an opportunity to speak for ourselves. In thinking about my own hair and my existence within the diaspora I often reflect on how my culture influences my perspective. These works are physical manifestations of the trauma that I have collected over the years.

KIMBERLY MORRIS was born in West Los Angeles, California and grew up in Leimert Park, CA. Her rich Creole heritage has been a major influence on her work. Her great-aunt was Florestine Perrault Collins, a creole photographer based in New Orleans. Collins was one of 101 African-American women who identified themselves as photographers in the 1920 U.S. Census.

Kimberly critiques self-identity, ideas of beauty, popular culture, and race in America via video, sculpture, photography, and painting. She inserts herself into her work by casting her own body, using her hair, and portraiture—all forms struggling with the constraining expectations society imposes on women of color. She writes, “Through the lens of beauty, I examine my position in the diaspora. Pressures of fitting into what the majority culture defines as normal: neater hair and constrictive body typecasting, dictate my daily routine.”

Kimberly received both her BA and MA from California State University Northridge and her MFA from California State University Long Beach. Recent exhibitions include Residency at Cerritos College Art+ Tech culminating in the exhibition Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler, Biomythography: Currency Exchange at Claremont Graduate University, Who Are You? at the Museum of Latin American Art. She was also awarded The College of the Arts Award from Cal State Long Beach 2015.

Visit the artist’s website: https://www.kimberlymorris.art