The Learning Exchange: Zora J Murff & Sasha Phyars-burgess
Zora J Murff & Sasha Phyars-Burgess | July 16th, 2020
Given the scope and durability of social inequality and the social problems that it engenders, it’s hard not to become disillusioned. How do people engage in social action during times of change such as our own? Conversely, which ideas will prove to be most useful in shaping actions? —Patricia Hill Collins, from Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory
In early June, I watched as the police chief of St. Paul, Minnesota was interviewed about the uprising following George Floyd’s murder. A customary question when a Black person is killed by police is, how do police repair relationships with the Black community? He responded by speaking about the many intersections of inequality in this country that have helped form and continue to inform carceral logics. He mentioned how many systems in our society are failing—maybe more appropriately, oppressing as they were designed to do so—and that we must acknowledge how racism is an essential part of the structures of American citizeny: labor, housing, education, health care, voting, etc., et. al.
At first I was bewildered, the customary response is supposed to be recrimination. Michael Brown was made into a demon as strong as Hulk Hogan, Rodney King into a professional linebacker who fought off 50,000 volts of electricity.
Although these two very public examples of superhumanization are very obvious, this is a typecasting that has played out through history in many subtle ways. Image making and photography were conscripted early on in those acts of codification, entrenchment, and perpetuation of negative stereotypes. However, these images were made with a hubris that white supremacist ideologies would prevail, an assumption that today we would be blind to the many social interpretations images have to offer. Enter intersectionality. I first found intersectionality as a critical social theory two years ago, and have since understood that I have been applying such thought to the images I make. I am interested in those deeper interpretations of how identities are crafted and politicized, and what role imagery has played in that process. This week, I am excited to re-present a lecture I gave alongside Sasha Phyars-Burgess, the first in a longer series of discussions aimed at tackling such ideas.
After spending some time getting to know each other, Sasha and I found that we both use photography as a way to acknowledge presence and create a sense of belongingness for ourselves. Within that, we came to the concept of citizenship, what that word means to the both of us, and how it currently resonates in our practices. We hope you enjoy the discussion as much as we did.
Much love to Lori Waselchuk and the crew over at the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center for hosting us.
Zora J Murff is an Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Arkansas. He received his MFA from the University of Nebraska—Lincoln and holds a BS in Psychology from Iowa State University. Merging his educational experiences, Murff uses his practice to highlight intersections between various social systems and art. He has published books with Aint-Bad Editions (PULLED FROM PUBLISHER) and Kris Graves Projects. His most recent monograph, At No Point In Between (Dais Books), was selected as the winner of the Independently Published category of the Lucie Foundation Photo Book Awards. Murff is also a Co-Curator of Strange Fire Collective, a group of interdisciplinary artists, writers, and curators working to construct and promote an archive of artwork created by diverse makers.
Sasha Phyars-Burgess
b. 1988
Scorpio.
Black.