Artist Statement
Overwhelmed by an immense feeling of dislocation, Marquisha staged the “Misfit” series in a typical American Chicago house with oversized-Mod culture costumes and English teacups as main signifiers amongst other clues- of cultural misfits. The insatiable appetite for Tea especially, amongst other exotic resources from the Far East by European imperial powers, manifested as polemic socio-political complications in the post-colonial conquests. The “Yellow” series satirizes and ridicules ‘Asian tropes’ while undermining chauvinistic marginalization of females in the Chinese culture.
In these photographs, Marquisha antagonizes the neocolonial state of many cultures today. The direct gaze of the models confronts the audience, almost as if the audience’s complicities makes them equally guilty. The models’ personal stories and ethnic identities further endorses Marquisha’s internal struggles as rather ubiquitous sentiments.
