2021 Grad Show

oualie frost

AUArts Grad Show 22DCAA70-078C-43D5-B217-38A078BA8C8C

Painting

vimeo.com/oualie

My work engages with personal experience, protest, critique, and existential query; using humor and play as a point of access for myself and viewers. I address my (bi)racial identity, mental health, neuroatypicality and the everyday in my work. Due to this, my work often takes on a level of vulnerability in the form of video-performance works, process artefacts and text. My interests in anti-racist/anti-oppressive action and personal experiences under oppressive social structures has led to much of my work taking a critical but satirical form, both as a strategy for survival and as means to de-alienate the viewer in potentially uncomfortable situations.

Living a life full of inherent dichotomies, I try to embody that somewhat in my work by being sad but silly, snarky but earnest.

wesufferbutwhy

The Sims franchise has long been a cultural classic. Unparalleled by any other simulation game, The Sims, especially modded, offers an immense amount of possibilities in life-like gameplay. Because of this, The Sims is one of the best options to create machinima, an accessible alternative form of film-making that involves using footage filmed in a video game. It requires very little beyond access to a computer, game, and basic editing software, costing much less money and offering more choices in actors, wardrobe, and sets. The Sims is also an amazing form of escapism from life’s woes, especially during the confinement and alienation COVID-19 brings.

However, despite all intentions of escapism, life always seems to imitate itself.

False Equivalency

"The False Equivalency of White Terrorism and Black Death (After Dana Schutz)" is the second work in a two part series using the death of insurrectionist terrorist Ashli Babbit as a starting point from which I try to question the narratives, white entitlement, and double standards mainstream white society forces upon Black people and their activities.
Despite the incomparable nature of 2020’s resurgence of BLM civil rights protests versus an act of white supremacist domestic terrorism, people still attempt to draw parallels in dangerous ways.
Why are Black people held to higher standards than white people? Why are white people entitled to disseminate and profit off Black people dying while Black people are not allowed the same?

This site may contain artworks with provocative content that some viewers may find uncomfortable or upsetting. AUArts supports a culture of non-censorship and ongoing conversations about contemporary art.