Kiara

Artist Endia Beal (born 1985)

Date2012

Mediumpigment print

DimensionsFrame: 42 × 32 in. (106.7 × 81.3 cm)

Credit LineGift of Stuart Parks

Object number2024.2.1

DescriptionWinston-Salem-based artist Endia Beal uses photography and video to explore conversations about race and diversity in the corporate workplace and to reveal the often overlooked and underappreciated experiences unique to people of color. In her series Am I What You're Looking For?, Beal focused on young African-American women preparing for their first jobs in the professional workspace. Beal stated, “What does it mean to be in these spaces and to be objectified in these spaces? I’ve found that, as a Black woman, it doesn’t matter what you wear. Even if you wear a dark blue suit, you’re still other. What matters is your skin color, which you cannot change. Until the system changes, nothing really changes.” Beal’s innovative process begins by mounting a life-sized image of a corporate workspace in a domestic setting. She then poses her models in front of the backdrop. At first glance, they appear to be standing in a generic office space with file drawers and cubicles. The viewer then notices that the “office” is a vinyl backdrop suspended from metal poles, and the women in the series are actually standing in a living room. Domestic details such as a fireplace and a mantle with family photographs on the right and a couch on the left mark the perimeters of Beal’s photograph. Kiara, who was 26 when Beal took this photograph, shared with the artist: “I perceive the corporate space as one unwelcoming to the ‘self’ and entirely engrossed with the ‘norm’—that makes me uncomfortable.” In Beal’s photograph, Kiara is dressed in a bright red dress and heels. Her hair is long and straight, and she looks off to the right, avoiding the eye of the photographer and the viewer. Her expression is serious and unsmiling. She appears, as she noted in her statement, uncomfortable.
Exhibition History2021
Voyage of Life: Art, Allegory, and Community Response
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, 07/16/2021 - 12/12/2021

2025
Still I Rise: The Black Experience at Reynolda
Reynolda House Museum of American Art

Status

On view

Collections