Projects Myra Greene

	CHARACTER RECOGNITION - Ongoing Confronted with an up swell of bigotry both personal and public, I was forced to ask myself, what do people see when they look at me. Am I nothing but black? Is that skin tone enough to describe my nature and expectation in life? Do my strong teeth make me a strong worker? Does my character resonate louder than my skin tone? Using a photographic process linked to the times of ethnographic classification, I repeatedly explore my ethnic features. The lessons learned are haunting and frightening in these modern times. Untitled, 3 by 4 inched black glass plate Ambrotype. 35 plates total to date.
	POX - 2005 Inflected with an adult case of the chicken pox, I was asked to take pause. With swelling bumps rising off of my skin, I could barely manage complicated thoughts and was only able to document my fleshy mutation. When the scars healed, I was able to translate my experience into more than just grotesque pictures, and created a small artist book. Perhaps the pox offered a physical release of a mindful situation, a tangible representation of an emotive state. There are 10 images are all from the book POX a digital inkjet book with text. All images are sized 4.5 by 6 inches.
	SELF -PORTRAITS - 2004 In this series of contemplative portraits, I experimented with photographic techniques to create a random patterning and destruction of the photographic ideals of clarity and precision. While murky, these images reward with the revelation of something, my body and my presence. The body is cropped and photographed as mass. When transformed by process, the body and skin transform into layers of sensibility and emotion. >>Read the Essay by Carla Williams in Contact Sheet. >>Read the Essay by Jeffreen M. Hayes and Bennie Johnson. All 12 images are untitled, 13 by 10 inches, inkjet prints.
	THE BEAUTIFUL ONES - 2002 In this series of photographs both black pop-star icons and family members, are physically worked over, mutating their original look. By manipulating the images through numerous photographic and printmaking processes, I eliminate the space between the famous and family. This handling of the image creates a monotone world, in which photographic information is sometimes difficult to understand, and figures fade into a sea of color. Identities are lost while fashion, postures and attitudes sit on the surface of the image. These images are a physical representation of how I have learned about beauty, and how memory intervenes in the understanding and interpreting of that message. All 20 images are untitled, 16 by 20 inches, c-prints.
	HAIRY PROJECTS 1999-2004
	HAIRY PHOTOGRAPHS- 1999 Knowing and using every type of black hair possible engrosses me: the nap, braid, dreadlocks, twist, straight, curly, natural or synthetic. I photograph hair, and also transform these materials into new objects. I began making photographs, trying to stuff the picture frame with as much hair as possible. I longed to make images that exploited the nap of black women’s hair, images that held the bounce and the shine that often go unnoticed. By photographing others and myself I searched for images that subtly described the hair, and conveyed the magnetism and the allure that I felt was missing in everyday descriptions of Black hair. All 12 images are untitled, 30 by 40 inches, c-prints.
	HAIRY LOCKETS - 2000 The lockets are the most delicate and precious objects that I have created in association with the theme of hair. Recalling Victorian mourning jewelry, these lockets hold the image of individuals and hair products. Using color images (slide transparencies) with non-real hair creates a 20th century twist on this tradition. The goal is to create objects with hair, which infer memory. This memory however is not tainted with classical ideals, but set in modern times, noted by the type of hair and the clothing of the models. Nor are they linked to a specific memory (collective or personal). Like the pillows, the lockets allow the hair to spew out of its shell, but because of the small amount of hair used, these objects are not seen as grotesque, but as unique keepsakes. Various titles, various sizes, mixed media.
	HAIRY PILLOWS -2001 Often used as adornment, the pillow form implies comfort and safety. Normally used to decorate, these pillows transform themselves, recalling an absent head, the strands of hair left by a lover or a friend. The hair that is incorporated with the fabric defines each pillow as a unique object, or a separate individual. The surface of the pillow attempts to entice the viewer to touch as well as allow the hair to explode from the surface. While some pillows are imprinted with images from the hair products themselves, others are bare of imagery, except for the excess of hair. While some pillows are tame, others burst at the seams with the hair itself. The pillows range from the tidy and styled to the overt and unruly, mimicking the everyday states of black hair. All pillows are untitled, various sizes, mixed media.
	HAIRY INSTALLATION - 2004 In this installation, a simple white couch sits down a long hallway. The couch has single hairs growing from the upholstery. In the cracks and crevices, hair is built out, creating slits of nappy locks. Embedded in the arms of the couch are small speakers. As one approaches the couch and as they sit, they would hear the simple and amplified sounds of me combing, pulling and playing with my hair. The couch would become symbolic stage in which my bad habits of playing and pulling on my nappy hair were performed. The couch becomes the net for my hair, catching straying strands. This space drawn from my imagination would provide comfort for private moments of eccentricity. The couch becomes a fascinating and grotesque, desired and repulsing all within the same moment. The couch would emulate my actions, and could stand in for me. Mixed Media Installation, including sound.

Confronted with an up swell of bigotry both personal and public, I was forced to ask myself, what do people see when they look at me. Am I nothing but black? Is that skin tone enough to describe my nature and expectation in life? Do my strong teeth make me a strong worker? Does my character resonate louder than my skin tone? Using a photographic process linked to the times of ethnographic classification, I repeatedly explore my ethnic features. The lessons learned are haunting and frightening in these modern times.

Untitled, 3 by 4 inched black glass plate Ambrotype. 35 plates total to date.

POX - 2005

Inflected with an adult case of the chicken pox, I was asked to take pause. With swelling bumps rising off of my skin, I could barely manage complicated thoughts and was only able to document my fleshy mutation. When the scars healed, I was able to translate my experience into more than just grotesque pictures, and created a small artist book. Perhaps the pox offered a physical release of a mindful situation, a tangible representation of an emotive state.

There are 10 images are all from the book POX a digital inkjet book with text. All images are sized 4.5 by 6 inches.

SELF -PORTRAITS - 2004

In this series of contemplative portraits, I experimented with photographic techniques to create a random patterning and destruction of the photographic ideals of clarity and precision.

While murky, these images reward with the revelation of something, my body and my presence. The body is cropped and photographed as mass. When transformed by process, the body and skin transform into layers of sensibility and emotion.

>>Read the Essay by Carla Williams in Contact Sheet.

>>Read the Essay by Jeffreen M. Hayes and Bennie Johnson.

All 12 images are untitled, 13 by 10 inches, inkjet prints.

THE BEAUTIFUL ONES - 2002

In this series of photographs both black pop-star icons and family members, are physically worked over, mutating their original look. By manipulating the images through numerous photographic and printmaking processes, I eliminate the space between the famous and family.

This handling of the image creates a monotone world, in which photographic information is sometimes difficult to understand, and figures fade into a sea of color. Identities are lost while fashion, postures and attitudes sit on the surface of the image. These images are a physical representation of how I have learned about beauty, and how memory intervenes in the understanding and interpreting of that message.

All 20 images are untitled, 16 by 20 inches, c-prints.

HAIRY PROJECTS 1999-2004

HAIRY PHOTOGRAPHS- 1999

Knowing and using every type of black hair possible engrosses me: the nap, braid, dreadlocks, twist, straight, curly, natural or synthetic. I photograph hair, and also transform these materials into new objects.

I began making photographs, trying to stuff the picture frame with as much hair as possible. I longed to make images that exploited the nap of black women’s hair, images that held the bounce and the shine that often go unnoticed. By photographing others and myself I searched for images that subtly described the hair, and conveyed the magnetism and the allure that I felt was missing in everyday descriptions of Black hair.

All 12 images are untitled, 30 by 40 inches, c-prints.

HAIRY LOCKETS - 2000

The lockets are the most delicate and precious objects that I have created in association with the theme of hair. Recalling Victorian mourning jewelry, these lockets hold the image of individuals and hair products. Using color images (slide transparencies) with non-real hair creates a 20th century twist on this tradition. The goal is to create objects with hair, which infer memory. This memory however is not tainted with classical ideals, but set in modern times, noted by the type of hair and the clothing of the models. Nor are they linked to a specific memory (collective or personal). Like the pillows, the lockets allow the hair to spew out of its shell, but because of the small amount of hair used, these objects are not seen as grotesque, but as unique keepsakes.

Various titles, various sizes, mixed media.

HAIRY PILLOWS -2001

Often used as adornment, the pillow form implies comfort and safety. Normally used to decorate, these pillows transform themselves, recalling an absent head, the strands of hair left by a lover or a friend. The hair that is incorporated with the fabric defines each pillow as a unique object, or a separate individual. The surface of the pillow attempts to entice the viewer to touch as well as allow the hair to explode from the surface. While some pillows are imprinted with images from the hair products themselves, others are bare of imagery, except for the excess of hair. While some pillows are tame, others burst at the seams with the hair itself. The pillows range from the tidy and styled to the overt and unruly, mimicking the everyday states of black hair.

All pillows are untitled, various sizes, mixed media.

HAIRY INSTALLATION - 2004

In this installation, a simple white couch sits down a long hallway. The couch has single hairs growing from the upholstery. In the cracks and crevices, hair is built out, creating slits of nappy locks. Embedded in the arms of the couch are small speakers. As one approaches the couch and as they sit, they would hear the simple and amplified sounds of me combing, pulling and playing with my hair. The couch would become symbolic stage in which my bad habits of playing and pulling on my nappy hair were performed. The couch becomes the net for my hair, catching straying strands. This space drawn from my imagination would provide comfort for private moments of eccentricity. The couch becomes a fascinating and grotesque, desired and repulsing all within the same moment. The couch would emulate my actions, and could stand in for me.

Mixed Media Installation, including sound.