Arel Lisette

Lives and works in New York, NY

Artist statement

In the aftermath of the presidential election, I have continuously travelled to Volusia County in Central Florida to document and draw the roadside business, political, and religious signs within this subtropical conservative stronghold. Navigating the streets and highways of the Southern landscape, the signs and symbols that populate the sides of the Florida road tell a uniquely American story of faith, yearning, and anger whose messages and warnings reverberate across county and state lines. While photographs allow me to record specific moments of time and place, it is through reshaping them in the process of drawing that I am able to merge reality with the imaginary to form the possibility of new narratives. I begin by saturating the pores of my paper with charcoal, and then work into this field of black by repeatedly erasing and adding material until the paper and image are imbued with a shadowy history. Drawing subtractively allows me to uncover and reflect on the nuances and darker undercurrents of the American identities and narratives held within this cultural signage, and to convey the breadth of humanity that exists beyond divisive representations on display throughout national media. My drawings communicate that the past, present, and future are echoes of each other, and that the painful hidden narratives we carry must be made visible, reimagined, and renegotiated.

Artwork