ANDRÉ TERREL JACKSON

André Terrel Jackson is interested in the individual experiences that add up to create social, political and cultural groups. Mining personal history, the artist is able to use poetry, weaving, sculpture, apparel and performance to spark conversation about difficult issues related to identity. Jackson is Inspired by the work of artists from Sonya Clark and Nick Cave, Melina Matsoukas, Marlon Riggs and Tarrel Alvin McCraney; to musicians like Cakes Da Killa and Solange, Beyoncé and Janelle Monáe; to scholars like Kimberlé Crenshaw and Amelia Jones, and bell hooks; to writers like Essex Hemphill and Joseph Beam. André uses language, visual/literal/metaphorical, to center the voices and images of blackness. Intersectionality is paramount, and influences the use of materials, which take the artist from the craft store, to the hardware store, from the quirky, to the fine and luxurious.  The mixing, and juxtaposing, of materials lend humor and beauty to otherwise grave topics. Jackson received a BA in Fashion from Albright College and an MFA in Fibers from Savannah College of Art and Design.

André Terrel Jackson, "Urban Violet", 2018
André Terrel Jackson, "Urban Violet", 2018
André Terrel Jackson, "Southern Queery", 2018
André Terrel Jackson, "Southern Queery", 2018

“Urban Violet” AND “Southern Queery”

Video I. and Video II. explore the experience of compound marginalization. Video I. Urban Violet features poetry recalling the experience of rejection, acceptance and understanding between people of different identifications. Video II. Southern Queery takes a more triumphant approach to poetic verse. The “queery” is at once a declaration, invitation, and maybe even, a seduction. In conversation, these brief interrogations of experiences at the margins speak to the ways identity is in flux interpersonally and internally.