2026 SPE Annual Conference: Catalyst for Exchange
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print this pageMimesis: The Abstract Nature of Identity
Imagemaker: Claire A. Warden
Sunday, September 15 - 11:00AM to 11:45AM
ELIF 301
Mimesis is grounded in issues of identity, the other, and the psychology of knowledge and power. The creation of this series comes at a time when the struggle to accept the unfamiliar is pervasive in our culture. When looking at this series, the urge to ask "what is it?" echoes the question, "what are you?" – a question that has been directed towards me countless times as a person of color and one that I find increasingly difficult to answer. Questions like this remind us that it is vital to engage and support voices that speak to the diversity of our country and the experiences had by people of color. Mimesis is my voice in this conversation.
In the Imagemaker Presentation, I will discuss my background, the origins of Mimesis in its concept, as well as the discovery of a new cameraless process. This process utilizes saliva and mark-making on a film negative and is uniquely qualified to address the artworks' concept. I will share the sociological research and the personal or collective experiences that inform the resulting images. The presentation will include a look into my studio process, the transformation of my negatives and the resulting positive images. This process produces a series of images that reveal certain truths in the abstract nature of identity, my personal experiences as an immigrant and a person of color, as well as the inadequacies of language to describe oneself. Resembling systems of the natural sciences — microscopic, topographic and celestial — the photographs allegorize the complexity of systems that make up an individual and the perception of self.
speaker
Claire Warden
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