ART
the smartest thing damali ayo may have
done to further her career as an artist is
avoid art school. Though she has a ster­
ling silver education— 13 years at Sid-
well Friends in Washington, D.C., and a
degree in American civilization from Brown
University— as an artist she is self-taught. As
a result, she feels free to take more creative
chances and depend more on her gut
instincts.
Her work is as unusual as her name, which
means beautiful vision and joy. (She prefers
the lowercase and dropped her father’s name
“because it felt like a slave relic,” she says.)
Her three-dimensional assemblages and
installation pieces are as much about her
intuitive process as they are about the end
result.
“I work in partnership with each piece in
the process of creation,” ayo explains.
“Together the art and 1 make what you see
before you, each adapting my vision to its
needs. "This process is one of the most
authentic experiences I have had.”
In 1997, ayo moved to Portland— “It just
called to me,” she says. Since then she has
moved gradually toward art and now plans to
make it her full-time career. A s she explains,
she just woke up one day and felt compelled
to create a work of art about her experience
of racism. The real beauty of the art, ayo says,
is that “I could stop telling the stories— I was
done— 1 could let the pieces speak for me.”
At the moment, ayo has two shows of her
work on view. The first is in the lobby of the
Reiersgaard Theatre, home to Artists Reper­
tory Theatre, which is currently presenting A
Raisin in the Sun, a powerful play about
African American family life by the noted
playwright Lorraine Hansberry.
The show is curated by local gallery owner
Mark Woolley, who asked ayo to create works
inspired by the play and its author. What
evolved is “speak," an array of assemblages that
engage the viewer from a distance by their
mere freshness, then draw the viewer ever clos­
er to examine the fine detail and the pieces of
text incorporated into each piece.
As the artist says of this body of work: “It is
both an intellectual examination of our society
and an emotional examination of my identity
as an individual in this world.”
It’s not easy work to view; these are not
pretty pictures to glance at and pass by. Each
piece is a strong statement about some aspect
of ayo’s experiences as a biracial woman who
also identifies as a sexual minority. Each piece
challenges viewers to examine their own atti­
tudes, their own internalized prejudices.
One of the most dramatic works is stripped,
a piece ayo did after venturing into the Egypt-
ian Club on a Tuesday night, where she was
mistaken for one of the exotic dancers. The
text reads:
went to the dyke bar
it was strip night
all the women were white
except the ones
that were for sale.
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The objects and images that complete the
3-D collage speak to the objectification of
women, as does the caging of most of it behind
chicken wire. It is difficult to stare at without
sensing the artist’s visceral feelings.
Another powerful piece is free, which fea­
tures text and images painted and sewn onto a
woman’s slip. Its text reads:
I
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if i could cover the holes you penetrate,
i could sleep,
dreaming of my own emancipation.
As a bisexual, biracial,
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damali ayo has a unique
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The artist’s second show this month, titled
“ i keep looking for myself,” is at the Interstate
Firehouse Cultural Center and is a series of five
installation pieces— named naive, acceptance,
resistance, redefinition and internalization — that
explore the stages of racial identity develop­
ment. As a bicultural woman who has lived in
both the black and white worlds, ayo is unique­
ly suited to this subject.
“I believe that art should make its viewers
think and feel,” she writes in her artist’s state­
ment. “Racism, sexism, love, growth and
searching are constant themes in my work. My
work often depicts the intersection of body and
spirit.”
While this is undeniably cerebral work
which demands that the viewer participate, it
is also highly personal and emotional.
“I like to make seen and heard what is often
avoided in daily conversation,” ayo says
unflinchingly.
She is also quick to point out that she con­
siders herself a teacher, one who creates oppor­
tunities for dialogue and personal growth:
“Instead of asking me ‘W hat does that mean?’
ask yourself‘How does that make me feel?’
Therein lies the meaning of my work.”
On the complex subject of how she
describes herself, ayo is equally eloquent.
“I’ve been through every label in the book,
and I’m over it,” she says with a sigh. “On the
East Coast 1 call myself a bi-dyke and everyone
understands that.”
However, in the African American commu­
nity, which has historically struggled with
acceptance of sexual minorities, she has been
accused of selling out to the white community.
Listening to her impassioned words, one
gets the impression that she’ll be thrilled when
she has a large body of work to do her explain­
ing for her and she can dispense with all labels
except the one that seems to matter most to
her: artist.
Don’t miss these opportunities to stretch
your attitudes toward race and identity, to
enter into the mind and glimpse the spirit of a
talented new artist with volumes of hard-
earned wisdom to share.
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1516 S.W. Alder St. in Portland, will be on view
through Feb. 20. Her show at Interstate Firehouse
Cultural Center, 5340 N . Interstate Ave. in Port -
land, runs through Feb. 26.
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DAMALI AYOs pieces at the Reiersgaard Theatre,
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ORIANA G r e e n is the Entertainment Editor of
Ju st O u t and also an artist. She spent many years
deep inside the art world earning her living as a
painter. Write to her at oriana@justout.com.
in ven tory.
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1111 S o u t h w e s t Stark (1 bl ock sout h of P o w e r s ) t 503 227 4381
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