ARTIST STATEMENT
Charisse explores a range of issues – identity, food, faith and female representation. Her subjects are as broad as the media she employs. Her work is multifaceted in its analysis of the individual’s relationship to one’s external environment. Often personal in inflection, her works explore the connection between psychological states of mind and socio-political behavior.
“Worth Her Salt” explores women’s relationship to traditional food practices. Salt itself is historically a symbol of value and preservation. In this work Charisse places tiny items of cooking, and stereotypically gendered food such as baked goods, candy, fruits and vegetables in a glass salt shaker to question if these practices should be valued and/or preserved. After adding mother and home maker to her multiple identities Charisse has recently reexamined the notion that powerful women should/must resist a place in the kitchen. She furthers this broad discourse by sculpting a big issue in small scale. In this way she quietly questions if the kitchen has to be seen as a marker of patriarchal oppression? Can it also be a place of creativity, or a valuable vehicle for comfort & family care?
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Charisse Harris is a mixed-media artist & art instructor. She received her MFA from Kent State University in 2016. Since then, she has participated in a number of exhibitions, lectures, workshops, and curatorial pursuits. She is the part owner of the East Avenue Gallery in Akron Ohio; a new community art space that supports local artists. She teaches part time at Columbus State and Capital University in Columbus Ohio.
© Charisse Harris