HD video. TRT 5 Min. 2014.

Untitled #70 is a telling story of self discovery and the all encompassing battle between the conscious and subconscious. In a multimedia performance piece, I use video and Image projection to illustrate how our societal constructs cultivates one’s understanding of self. Can the “self” survive independently without such constructs? What would those images look like?

HD VIDEO 

TRT 5MIN

Archival Inkjet Prints. 20x20. 2014.

Shadow of Self is the first installment of Christie Neptune’s multi-media series Eye Of The Storm, a body of work that examines how constructs of race, gender, and class limit the personal experience. Working across photography, film and new media, Neptune critiques hegemonic systems of whiteness that shape one’s definition of “self.”

In Shadow of Self, a two-part photo series featuring behind the scenes footage and captured images, Neptune juxtaposes a nude white male, a marker of white fragility, against a placid 2-dimensional projection of a black family. The series serves as a symbolic inversion of historic roles: “object” and “viewer.” Behind the scenes footage features Neptune looking back with camera in hand; an objection to the social constructions of whiteness and supremacy.

HD Video. TRT 7mins. 2016

She Fell From Normalcy is the second installment of Christie Neptune’s multi-media series Eye Of The Storm, a body of work that examines how constructs of race, gender, and class limit the personal experience. Working across photography, film and new media, Neptune critiques hegemonic systems of whiteness that shape one's definition of “self”, and in She Fell From Normalcy, places particular emphasis on its effect on the emotional and mental health of people of color.

In She Fell From Normalcy, Christie Neptune uses sound, installation, original writing and video throughout the gallery to build a world stripped of the limitations of race, gender, and class. As subject, Neptune employs two females trapped in a sterile, white environment in which they are controlled by an unseen presence; it is only after a cataclysmic break in the system that the females are granted clarity and self-recognition.

Film Credits:
Written and Directed by Christie Neptune
Produced by Christie Neptune
Featuring Christine Neptune and Kohcoa Kibibijaweta
Cinematography by Anthony Sylvester, Christie Neptune, and Yvonne Shirley
Edited by Christie Neptune
Sound Composition by Christopher Neptune
Narration by Christie Neptune

HD video. TRT 4:21 Min. 2016.

Archival Inkjet Prints. 8x10. 2016

Pulling At My labels is the third and final installment of Christie Neptune’s multi-media series Eye Of The Storm, a body of work that examines how constructs of race, gender, and class limit the personal experience of historically marginalized bodies of color.

In two moving frames side by side, Neptune captures a series of self-portraits in 35mm whilst pulling socio-political labels from a caricatured image of “self.” The gesture serves as a ritualized act of self-actualization.  Working across photography, film and mixed media, Neptune critiques hegemonic systems of whiteness that shapes one’s psychological self and perceptive modes.

Photo and Video Series. 2015.

When what lies beyond the other side of strength is trapped behind a glass wall, what can one do, but carry on? This reflection runs like merry-­go­-rounds in my head, hurdling forward, then backwards. Following the murder of Mike Brown and the riots in Ferguson, I thought a great deal about the mothers of the slain.  As Mother, how do you stand strong in the face of tragedy?

“What Was Taken” is a photo-­series which spotlights the communal effects of depression, trauma and the mythos of “the strong black woman” in communities of color.  The series depicts two women of color pressed against an unbreachable glass surface.  The gesture examines the limits of “self” and vulnerability found in communities of color.

HD Video. TRT 4:31 Min. 2015.

Talk With Me chronicles a young woman's struggle with depression. As part of the exhibit, Silently Through The Night, it spotlights the communal effects of Trauma, Depression and the Mythos of the "Strong Black Woman" in communities of color. 

Images on the right: 

More Art Social Screening at Union Docs. Williamsburg, NY. 2015

"Woman Now" exhibit at Workhouse Art Center. Lorton, VA. 2017

Work In Progress. 2015.

 In Memories from Yonder, an installation incorporating distorted photography and video, I digitally weave together the visual narrative of Ebora Calder, a Guyanese immigrant senior, and I, a first generation Guyanese-American artist. In an unspoken dialogue between both the western world and Guyana, I spotlight the transformative nature of identity. I question what happens when one’s cultural foundations and values have shifted entirely because of a new environment.

Memories from Yonder depicts Calder crocheting, a popular recreational activity amongst Guyanese women. The gesture serves as a symbolic weaving of the two cultural spheres in an effort to reconcile the surmounting pressures of maintaining tradition whilst immersed in an Americanized culture. 

Hamiltonian Gallery, Washington DC. November 8, 2016

We are not Alone: An Exploration of Planet X debuts at the Hamiltonian Gallery in a group exhibit titled “[recombinant] fellows: RA” curated by Camilo Álvarez of Samsøñ Gallery.  This past summer as part of Hamiltonian’s Fellows Converge, I explored the cultural landscape of Boston Massachusetts. In a “Laboratory of context”, I visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Harvard’s Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African and African American Art, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s public art collection and List Visual Art Center.

We Are Not Alone: A Digital Exploration of Planet X (2016) is an experimental narrative that examines the reductive modes of identity and form. Through abstraction, 3D animation, film and html, I construct a utilitarian edifice that uses basic non-objective matter to convey the underside of our visual world. The film follows the consciousness of Alec an African American female rendering lost in the grid-like spatial terrain of Planet X. Alec an unseen presence, slowly develops corporeal form as she gains familiarity with the structural ordering of systems.

In the age of transparency, where new media, mass surveillance and neurotechnology intersect, how do we protect our inherent rights to privacy?

Please visit site, experience, watch and complete questionnaire: 

www.eoplanetx.com

It is especially important for me to create counter-narratives which examine pedagogies of resistance, black subjectivity and the nuances of identity construction amongst marginalized female bodies of color.  In “Ms. ______(interior),” a photo and video series, I explore black subjectivity as a platform for quiet resistance. Through convoluted portraits of anonymous black women poised in fluorescent illumination and wiring, I warp time and place, transporting viewers from the real world into a contemplative space that grants fleeting access into my subject’s inaccessible psychological life. By averting my subject’s eyes, I forgo the lens of the “other”. Within this context, I am able to critique historically upheld supremacies and imagine alternate realities stripped of limitations. 

<span style= "background-color: FFFF00"> When what's "good" looks bad and what's "bad" looks good</span>

2017-2018

“Unpacking Sameness”, is a conceptual multimedia installation that examines the social ills of white supremacy, colorblind ideologies, and fragility. In “Unpacking Sameness” I use reflective surfaces, fabric and assembled industrial pieces to explore the psycho-social divisions of double consciousness, institutionalized racial difference and spatial thinking, in respect to the framing and positioning of my body and objects in space. Within this piece, I invite my viewers to catechize what is "unseen" behind The Great American Curtain; the “most disagreeable mirror” in Baldwin’s “The White Man’s Guilt.”

Product: The Colorline ™

Patent No.: US 5,434,063 B2

Date of Patent: Jul. 15, 1896

Invented by Jim Crow Sr., the Chrome Stand with Adjustable Arm and Opaque Green Curtain is a new aged fragility technology used to solve the modern day Negro Problem. This product is designed to block out the reality of systematic racism, cultural and racial difference, white supremacy and aggravated stress caused by interactions with non-white persons. Entitled the "The Colorline," this technology can be used to maintain a state of delusion and privilege.

Work in Progress. 2017-2018

The End of Blue and Yellow is a series of 35mm color slides exploring my family’s migration story from Guyana to the United States of America during the late 1970’s. In this series, I explore the body and space; space as an environmental influence upon one’s cognition, genetic memory, and movement. Through video projections and 100 35mm color slides, I investigate the phenomenon of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance and visual psychological triggers encoded within space.

The project is very dear to me and through this examination, I would like to explore the cognitive imprints of previous generations and its lingering effects on subsequent offspring.  Is it possible to inherit trauma? What is a genetic memory?

A series of video and photographic images from my undergraduate years at Fordham University and 2 years post college (2007-2011).