The Performance

Risa H.

• Artist Statement

  What does it mean to perform? Throughout American pop culture, countless elements have been borrowed from other cultures and reshaped to fit mainstream taste. This project explores what it means for young people—young artists—to navigate the complex landscape of performing for an audience. I entered this work thinking about the icons who came before us, the cultural communities that shaped them, and how their contributions have been both celebrated and appropriated over time. When something that is made to be centered around a community and is then taken and transformed into entertainment, what ends up being lost? How should communities respond as a result? Ultimately, I wanted to consider a central question: How do artists choose to keep creating when they know their work’s meaning can be taken, repackaged, or misunderstood?

• Creative Statement

  Creativity helps us innovate, create, and give meaning to culture. I use creativity to ask questions, address ideas, and create dialectical work through different mediums, one of which is dance. With dance, I interact with new ideas and people, adding depth to my ideas and broadening my perspectives.

• Collaborators

  Phoenix A., Emi H.