Artist: Tayla Myree
Artwork: „In Your Archives“ (2024) Video, Installation, collection of secondhand market items.
*Trigger Warning*
This work exposes racist depictions of Black people found in Austrian fleamarkets, Antique and thrift stores in order to critique them but some may still find this triggering.
Work Description: In Your Archives is an ongoing work that interrogates the representation of Blackness in Austrian material culture ranging from antiques, literature, music, public space, artwork, and other areas. It delves into the Austrian imaginary and questions how Black people, more specifically, how the perceptions of Black people have been personified and its material impact on how Black people are treated in Austrian society. It has been claimed that Austria has no Black history to grapple with, nor has had a physical presence of Black people within its borders historically (both untrue claims), however Black people exist throughout varying aspects of the Austrian imaginary – if there are no Black people, why are we in your imagination?
Artist Biography: Tayla Myree is a visual artist and historian based in Vienna, Austria. Her work deals with the politics of memory and identity primarily in relation to Blackness as well as other marginalized identities. She explores these topics through the mediums of film, photography, prose, and sound. Tayla currently holds a Masters Degree in Comparative History from Central European University and is currently a part of the Video and Video Installation Studio at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
„FRUIT, SEEDS“
„fruit, seeds“ is a multimedia group exhibition by which the artists intentionally locate and expose themselves and their works in the between, the “still fi guring out” and the (un)becoming – a process which requires constant watering, so as to reap what is sown.
curated by: Tonica Hunter
“fruit, seeds” takes place in the framework of the Avalon Mentoring programme, which brings together emerging young artists with established artists and mentors in the cities of Vienna and Bratislava. AVALON is an Erasmus+ Project that Fremde werden Freunde is implementing together with the Bratislava Policy Institute.
