Colby Deal, Red Gen
Colby’s multidisciplinary approach through film photography, Fram building, and curation responds to the psychological and physical peak experienced through community, family, and the complexities that build multidimensional environments. He interrogates historical and existing ideologies by combining street photography and portraiture to capture the parallels of the past, the present, and how together they move us into the future. Deal debuts a series of photographs inspired by and by a generation of change and power, a group who has set determination on changing the realities of black and brown people, along with the inequalities faced through simple interacting within the world. Colby uses the voice and the strength of red to capture the rage, passion, and boldness embedded in the “good trouble” this generation is ready to face.
-Moriah Alise, Curator, Red Gen
With the concept of my work being about preserving cultural characteristics in communities, a major part of this process involves me immersing myself into a community and learning about it’s members.
As a member of the Third Ward community I am quite familiar with the negative image that is perpetuated to society of people from urban communities, so my goal is to use my artwork to build a bridge of awareness and understanding of people from different cultures and communities. This begins with me being the representation opposite of the perpetuated narrative, which in turn assist me in capturing and displaying a practical relation of two cultures.
I have a deep appreciation for classical painting and the way they were displayed, so the past couple years I’ve taken this concept and adapted it to photography; as I’ve never seen photographs presented like huge classical paintings with elegant wooden frames built specifically for a certain image. I use a combination of colors, stains and house hold materials such as crown molding to create frames that represent the idea of home and I treat them to protect them while they are displayed in public and change along with the community. This process helps carry my concept of preserving cultural characteristics and history. It will be the process I use to display the photographs I create in public during my time at the residency.
