Tekikki Walker
Cleveland, OHIO - Tekikki Walker is an artist and designer in Ohio. Her work is textural, challenging, and thought-provoking. She is definitely someone to be watched… which is why we are showing three of her works.
I asked Tekikki to tell me more about how her work has been impacted by the need for social distancing. Here’s what she said:
I’m not too sure where to start.
It’s hard being an artist and finding the resources to make or sell your work consistently. I lost a new job that was set to start in late March that would’ve helped tremendously for me to afford materials to make/create. Due to COVID-19, I was informed that the position would no longer be available due to the organization shutting down to help protect the community against the virus.
My friends and I have been thinking of starting an art collective where we discuss our artwork, make art, and showcase it. However, those dreams have been limited because one of them is now sick with a fever. We decided to reconvene at another time until they feel better. The goal of the project was to find something positive in the midst of the pandemic and just general uncertainty.
“UnReal Yesmen”
Description: Digital collage/painting. A conversation about American history in the face of tribulation and oppression. At the forefront, a testimony to how misrepresented communities are forgotten and misplaced in the background. The elephant in the room includes those low-income communities which are often left to fend for themselves.
A combination of mystic realism, the apocalypse, and facing the news.
“extending”
Description: Collage with scanned images of hair extensions, gold, pearls, and various media.
A conversation about African American hair. Meant to “de-mystify” the negative connotations about black hair since slavery. An ode to what can be beautiful and how that beauty becomes interwoven and changes throughout time.
“Youshouldn’tBECREAMIN.”
Description: Video collage and music decomposition mix (inspired by Earl Sweatshirt).
Conversation about my body as a black woman in existence, real or imagined. The denial and attack of said body within these spaces. Choosing to hold power within these charged and harsh spaces unless otherwise moved.
The reversal of the water represents the denial re-entering the body which can be deemed unnatural and impossible. In the background, I explore with chopping and mixing the music to highlight and create specific and new key phrases that are different than the original song to further extrapolate the narrative that I’m sharing.