Graduating Art Student Shani Strand’s Installations Invite Critical Discussions
Meet Shani Strand, Graduate Student Speaker for UCLA Arts 2023 Commencement
Graduating UCLA Department of Art student Shani Strand is difficult to pin down. Her artwork is one part sculpture, one part installation, and entirely thought-provoking.
When discussing her work, she simultaneously shies away from explanations yet provides a plethora of interpretations. It can be overwhelming, but that’s Strand’s intention. She wants to trigger emotional reactions.
“I want my work to be affect-oriented, and I want critical discussions to be had,” says Strand. “I’m putting art into the world like an experiment.”
Strand is set to graduate with an M.F.A. in sculpture and will deliver the graduate student speech at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture’s commencement ceremony on Saturday, June 17.
When reflecting on her experience at UCLA, Strand says, “I'm grateful for so many people: professors and peers. The most shared advice from professors has been to simply remain in tune with my intuition.”
Photo by Lauren Villanueva, UCLA Arts Photographer in Residence
Jamaica and Derrida
Born in New York, raised in New Jersey, and of Jamaican descent, Strand’s childhood was split between New Jersey and Far Rockaway, Queens. Her art converses with both her parents, and she’s quick to acknowledge their influence.
“There was a point in my life where I was trying to become an independent adult, but there was also a point where I felt like I became my mother,” Strand says. “I can't remove her from my Jamaican-ness.” She recognizes their shared mannerisms.
Her interest in philosophy and religion, however, can be traced back to her other parent.
“One of my parents is a queer ex-minister. As a theologian, she studied philosophy and the history of religion,” says Strand.
In middle school, Strand’s parent immersed her in theology, quantum physics, and Kierkegaard, nothing was off limits. “I’ve been having an existential crisis since I was eleven. I was introduced to Derrida in my junior year of high school, which probably did irreparable damage,” Strand admits, tongue firmly in cheek.
She continues to read critical theory, especially Caribbean theorists. It heavily informs her work. “I'm both in conversation with the people I care about and antagonistic towards them,” she says. Strand intends to both understand the world and confront it.
Christianity and Jamaican mythmaking
Art has always been in Strand’s life. “Thinking about New York and the Caribbean, art isn’t confined to relegated spaces–it’s mundane and omnipresent,” says Strand. “It exists on the streets and in the way homes are decorated.”
She remembers trips with her family, visiting cathedrals and mosques. The imagery and architecture left an indelible impression.
“Thank God for Catholics,” she jokes. “They made incredible art.”
Besides Christianity, Strand likes to explore Jamaican lore, particularly the figure of the duppy, the patois word for spirit or ghost.
Duppy (ran through as a parallel for exploitation), 2022, concrete and fabric, 20" x 13.5" x 19.25". Courtesy of Shani Strand
“I like playing with the duppy in the context of moral hierarchies and power dynamics around angels and demons,” says Strand, “and deconstructing our relationships with morality and Christianity's relationship to the demonization of people and the colonization of lands.”
Colonization and its impact on the black diasporic consciousness permeates Strand’s art.
Sucking Salt
Jamaica was colonized by the British in the 1600s and remained a colony until the 1960s, but the impact of colonization is felt to this day.
“I love Jamaica because it's where my family's from,” says Strand, “but it also contextualizes a lot of my understanding of the world. I can't think about globalization and not think about my existence being a byproduct of colonialism, imperialism, and globalization.”
Strand returns to Jamaica twice a year. It’s difficult for her to talk about memories of the island nation because it’s very much alive. It’s not past, but present.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Strand and her friend Zenobia, frustrated by quarantine and thinking about New York’s diasporic communities, created an Instagram art project called Sucking Salt. The objective: to photographically archive Caribbean architecture and aesthetics in hopes to diversify architectural history.
“We were thinking about the ways people immigrate and move through space and how that transforms aesthetics,” says Strand. “Diaspora is a bidirectional process; it goes both ways.”
Sucking Salt documents the aesthetic similarities across various Caribbean countries and among New York's black diaspora.
“It’s interesting to see how aesthetics tie into one another via black diaspora,” says Strand, “but then there’s also specificities.”
In 2021, these “specificities” inspired Strand when Sucking Salt curated an art show at a gallery in the Lower East Side of New York featuring four Caribbean artists from different countries: Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and the British Virgin Islands. The show, Thick Like Dumpling, was an effort to amplify Caribbean voices.
The symbolics of materiality
Strand is articulate; she dissects the world with a sharp analytical scalpel. But painting and writing always felt restrictive, unable to encompass the complex conversations she wanted to have with her audiences. Art installations, however, have allowed others access to her thoughts.
“I’m interested in how sculptures live in space … I'm interested in material histories and deconstructing them. I'm interested in their misuse,” says Strand.
Get Me Bodied, 2023, foam, concrete, sand, stain, paint, rebar, ceramic, human teeth, iPhone with cracked screen, iPhone charger, cotton, 61" x 60" x 20". Photo by Angel Xotlanihua
Although grounded in critical theory, Strand is equally invested in tangible structures or, in her words, “the symbolics of materiality.”
The Future
When asked about the future, Strand says, “I just want to have fun, have conversations with people, and enjoy things. I'm excited to be part of the art community, but I'm also excited to be in a community with people in the real world.” She laughs, saying life informs art, so to make art, she must live life.
¿Qué tu quieres? Mi bunda?, 2023, foam, leather, latex, concrete, ceramic, resin, glue, wax, sand, seashells, rebar, paint, 25" x 47" x 29". Photo by Angel Xotlanihua
Living is what she intends to do. She’s looking forward to spending the summer in Mexico, preparing for an art show at Deli Gallery in Mexico City.
“I'm working on a video essay about the conception of fallen angels and the birth of Satan and what that has to do with populous love,” says Strand.
The show will debut in September. She’s bringing her cat along.
By Sean Arenas
Stay engaged. Use #UCLAarts to stay connected.
