Entrance Wall
On view from Museum London’s collection, Erika DeFreitas’s I am not tragically colored (after Nora Neale Hurston) invites visitors into a thoughtful encounter with identity, memory, and self-definition. Inspired by writer Zora Neale Hurston’s celebrated statement, “I am not tragically colored,” this work slows language down, giving each word space to be heard, considered, and felt.
As visitors spend time with this piece, they are encouraged to reflect on the ways language shapes how we see ourselves and one another, while considering how ideas about race and identity can be expressed, challenged and reclaimed.
About the artist:
Erika DeFreitas is a Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist working in performance, photography, video, installation, textiles, drawing, and writing. Her work has been exhibited across Canada including the Esker Foundation (Calgary), University of Toronto, and Dalhousie Art Gallery (Halifax), as well as internationally in New York, Paris, and London. She is a recipient of the 2016 Finalist Artist Prize from the Toronto Friends of Visual Arts and the 2016 John Hartman Award, and holds a Master of Visual Studies from the University of Toronto.
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