October 10 – November 30, 2022
Self-portraiture is a category that is more interrogative for me than any other. The repetition of it all– framing, shooting, and viewing myself, over and over again makes me think I’ve gotten closer to realizing something. The thing I have discovered – is that there is an uneasiness when seeing oneself. The uneasiness is a feeling that lingers even after I’ve looked away, knowing that the eyes of the image are fixed with a pain I try to leave behind. But what does that realization mean for me when I turn my back to the process I’ve also enabled?
High Interrogation is an ongoing investigation of imaging and understanding the self in times of trauma. I’ve struggled with the idea of photography, or specifically self-portraiture, as being a type of catharsis that helps or heals the artist as they create through pain. I am continuously making images as I work through waves of depression, times of numbness, or internal conflicts. Conflicts that feel as though they have been passed down to me and ones that are born as I grow older into my own identity of a black non-binary person. With each image, there is a resurfacing of memories I didn’t know were still contained inside of me. Memories that maybe hoping that these acts of performance will set them free and start a new process of healing.
It makes me wonder – what will forever lie within the marks and makeup of my own body?
JaLeel Marques Porcha
(b. 2001 Fort Riley, KS; raised in Paterson, NJ; and lives/works in Providence, RI)
JaLeel Marques Porcha is a multimedia artist whose works engage in notions of the archive and history; community and universality; trauma and the ideas of overcoming said trauma. Their practice is multifaceted and investigates solitary identity to narrate personal experiences for others to recognize similar or different experiences within themselves.
Their inspiration is derived from their own lived experience, introspectiveness, and black popular culture. Porcha aims in surfacing the links that connect the nuances that connect the intersections of their salient identities. Through the usage of a variety of mediums and approaches, Porcha creates layered spaces for imaginative thinking and confrontation.
JaLeel has exhibited in Philadelphia, PA; Long Island City, NY; Atlanta, GA; Boston, MA; Providence, RI. They are pursuing their BFA in Photography & Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design.
