CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 3/14/2018

Joyce J. Scott: "I skirt the borders between comedy, pathos, delight, and horror"

"I am very interested in raising issues," Joyce J. Scott is quoted in the catalogue to her acclaimed recent solo exhibition, Harriet Tubman and Other Truths. "My work is not mean to be openly offensive, but that does happen. I skirt the borders between comedy, pathos, delight, and horror. I believe in messing with stereotypes, prodding the viewer to reassess, inciting people to look and then carry something home—even if it's subliminal—that might make a change in them… We never know what person we are affecting and how they might change as a result… I seek opportunities to talk about how women—the very people who make human life—are considered expendable and disposed of. On the other hand, my beadwork might inspire mathematically or musically." Featured image is "Shhhhh!" (2012).