tech
Giddy up! Heroic horsewomen ride again
Using ‘equestrian embodiment’, photographer Ayana V Jackson celebrates Stage Coach Mary and other great riders who faced down prejudice
TL;DR
- Ayana V Jackson's 'You Forgot to See Me Coming' series highlights historic Black and mestiza horsewomen who challenged racial prejudice.
- The series uses 'equestrian embodiment' for figures like Mary Fields, Selika Lazevski, Amelio Robles, and Adelitas.
- Jackson's work confronts and subverts racist and sexist narratives embedded in dominant historical imagery.
- The artist draws from archives to retrieve narratives often left out of historical accounts, emphasizing defiance and perseverance.
- The latest series, 'Hidden in Plain Sight,' examines histories of extraordinary women using 'critical fabulation.'
- The equestrian figure in her work connects traditions from Al-Andalus, Spain, the Americas, and influences from Indigenous and Afro-descendent people.
- A specific garment in her work combines Indigenous American symbolism with African iconographies.
- The 'Intimate Justice' series imagines unrecorded moments of Black women's interiority and self-possession, countering historical erasure.