Philosophy in Art

"Because the Sun Hath Looked Upon Me" is a photographic project positioned at the intersection of cosmology, philosophy and spirituality. Combining multiple images using Photoshop, I create imaginative landscapes and self-portraits. The landscapes are symbols of the promised land; the ground references the physical world, the sky becomes a canvas for projection and imagination and the horizon acts as a symbol for the liminal space between the physical and ethereal. The portraits introduce a new way to envision my black identity through the power of the cosmos. This body of work is rooted in the Afrofuturist movement, which redefines the black identity through science fiction, mythology and technology. I construct a space where blackness is immanent and expands through space. The Yoruba cosmological concept of ase is said to be the power provided by the Eternal One that sustains the cosmos, similar to the idea of dark matter being the force that holds the universe together. At the core of this body of work is the expansion of selfhood and how we choose to define ourselves. Racial stereotypes and judgments hinder our understanding of who we are. I want to reduce the idea of separateness that is a result of racial labelling and categorization by placing blackness in the field of the ever-expanding depths of the cosmos, allowing it to be boundless and infinite.

- Granville Carroll, MFA in Photography and Related Media candidate, on his thesis work

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