Kalena Marshall Garcia
“good with a camera”

Projects
You Don’t Look Puerto Rican
COMPHET
Learning Solidarity 1 & 2
Arroz y no Gandules
Sustainable Printing
Video Work
Curation  
Collaborations
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COMPHET


COMPHET is a body of work exploring the experience of enforced domesticity as a woman and how compulsory heterosexuality played a part in my struggles with self identity and sexuality as a queer woman. When I first started this series, I had just gotten out of a three year relationship and came to the realization that I was a lesbian. These self portraits were taken in the apartment I shared with my ex boyfriend after we separated and I accepted my identity– that space being a huge source of anxiety for me, as it reminded me of how I restricted myself to fit a mold that was not me. I made the first series of prints while I was still living in the shared space with him. In the midst of moving out, I discovered the writing done by Adrienne Rich, Compulsory Heterosexuality. The essay strongly reflected my experience. I revisited the prints on a larger scale and incorporated Rich's quotes in a way that mimics a marked up darkroom print, paralleling me working through personal identity and sexuality through my art practice.