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Artwork

No 1 (2018): Abolishing Carceral Society, 237-238

Plague

Published
December 1, 2018

Abstract

Painting is my method of mourning. Unbridled feminist rage, anger towards the evils of capitalism and patriarchy, and the emotional fallout of shattered expectations and broken belief systems are the fodder that drive the content and shape my aesthetics. The failures of our social and political systems have exposed humanity’s incomprehensible capacity for violence. Witnessing such endless destruction leads to despair. The monster of late capitalist hegemony seems insurmountable, and modes of resistance begin to feel like Sisyphean tasks. Art is a method to wrestle with this disillusionment, to grieve for our loss of innocence, and to release collective anger in a visual scream. Here is painting as funerary object and conduit for rage.


Author Biography

Catherine Tafur is a Peruvian-born artist based in New York City. Tafur spent her childhood in Peru in a bicultural home with a Japanese mother and Peruvian father before relocating to the United States. The content of her work is informed by the experience of her youth as a queer, multiracial immigrant in American suburbia. Her drawings and paintings explore themes of death, violence, vulnerability, and loss of innocence. Her subjects are political and personal, feminist, and confrontational. Since studying at the Cooper Union School of Art on a full scholarship, she has had numerous group and solo exhibitions.

catherinetafur.com