LIMITS OF EMPATHY
Amber Doe
Opening Night:
October 3rd at 5:30pm-8pm
Solo Exhibition: October 3rd - January 18th
Artist:
AMBER DOE
Amber Doe is a multimedia artist who uses sculpture and performance to bear witness to the experiences of black women even as American society aims to render us and our lives as invisible and meaningless. Despite the prevalent “urban black” narrative, her experience is tied to the natural world, and Doe uses materials that reference her desert environment and lived experience as a black woman with Indigenous roots: palm leaves, branches, flowers, hair extensions, and cotton rope all give form to her sculptures, installations, videos, and performances. She does not see her experience highlighted in dominant culture, so she uses her art to rectify this representational void. All of her work is trans species ancestor worship.
LIMITS OF EMPATHY
Limits of empathy is a material journey through the history of care as the antidote to violence. Ephemera referencing the mother as the original archivist - historical American objects, totems and symbols prioritizing the centrality of care as eternal ecosystem and the way forward. Honoring historical care to create a new world based on the vitality of unacknowledged care, invisible labor and intersectional ecology.
Blue Lotus Artists Collective Information
Blue Lotus Artists' Collective (BLAC) is a non-profit gallery space dedicated to supporting and uplifting Black Artists. Located on the ground floor of the historic Pioneer Building in downtown Tucson, Arizona, our gallery is a place where the community can come together to celebrate, appreciate and see the art and talent of Black Artists. The gallery was founded in 2022 after several meetings of Tucson artists and arts advocates to ascertain how to promote Black Artists who are often underrepresented in museum and gallery settings. A smaller group, who now comprise the board members of BLAC, determined to address the issue first hand by creating this artists’ collective. Willie Bonner, local artist, chose the Blue Lotus to represent the effort. The Blue Lotus is a water lily native to Africa that grows even in muddy and nutritionally poor conditions that was cultivated by the Ancient Egyptian civilization and had great importance in their religious devotions.
Like the Blue Lotus, Black Artists have arisen from harsh and inhospitable environments to thrive, create and bring beauty and wonder to the world.