Inheritance: Ever-Present Whiteness explores my family's intimate history as enslavers in a pre-civil war era, my parents' willingness to fly a confederate flag today despite the horrific meaning, and my own whiteness that makes itself known through unintended actions. Whiteness as a visual representation is important to my work. It serves as a constant reminder that racism in America is deeply complicated and inescapably terrible.
I must make sure I'm accountable for that whiteness.
America has always been based on inequality, a duality of humanness where one skin tone was always valued more than others. We live in a society where whiteness is the default gaze; our systems are built around white wealth, and our government bodies are based on centuries-old racism and laws that favor white people. So, what does it mean to be white in America today, and how does self-awareness equate to accountability in terms of social inheritance? The Inheritance Project is a long-term project that started with a research dive into my family history. My ancestors, who were from the Appalachian Mountains, were also enslavers of black people. This discovery started me down the path to questioning my inherent whiteness, and the inherited racism that I hadn’t acknowledged until I unraveled the past. This body of work has three sections so far; My Admitted Whiteness, Ever-Present Whiteness, and third, a series of photographs is still in progress and is unnamed.
In Inheritance: My Admitted Whiteness, I pair up images and text on textiles as well as use found quilts from antique stores in Appalachia to convey this burden associated with my history. For me, the textiles represent the internal house of a person, the part that people don’t see because there are walls and exteriors that we white people build-up, up so that we don’t have to acknowledge the truth of our heritage. Those walls equate to the inheritance of racism, the actions, and thoughts of my ancestors (the enslavers), my parents (who actively fly a confederate flag), and myself (who took a black family to a plantation for family portraits). I question if the heaviness that I feel, the burden of this history, and the way I involuntarily think of things, are appropriate for a white person. Am I allowed to feel troubled, and if not, where do I put these feelings? I recognize, that for me, this isn’t traumatic, yet it is problematic. If I don’t acknowledge this part of me, then how will I ever become aware? How do I become open and honest so I can change? Does awareness equal accountability when it comes to the history of whiteness in the US? These things are what I think about when I am working on this section of Inheritance.
For Inheritance: Ever-Present Whiteness, I am trying to find a way to visually represent what whiteness would look like if it was tangible beyond my skin. In this work, I cover the landscape in the left-over fabric from My Admitted Whiteness. This fabric is connected to a dress that I wear and is attached to a white cinderblock (the ancestors). Using Georgia forests, I wrap my whiteness around the trees, creating a web of tangles and layers that represent my ancestors' taking of native lands, a claiming of all that is seen. It speaks of generational whiteness, of me handing down this inherited whiteness to both of my children as soon as they were born, and of me pushing my whiteness onto those who don’t look like me. As I unwind the fabric from the trees, thoughts of self-awareness and openness signify a change in the way I think and the way I act. Yet, in the end, I’m still connected to whiteness, to the terrible history, I’ll never be free from it.
Megen Porter is an Atlanta-based artist creating work about what it is to be white in America, and how she deals with the terrible history of her ancestors through art, communication, and giving back to the black community.
Black artists are important, please check out these emerging artists (Included are the 2022 GSU BFA Candidates):
https://www.chipmoodyphoto.com/
https://yaniquenorman.com/home.html
https://gsuphotobfa.wixsite.com/seniors2022
The CIILS Scholarship Foundation was organized to uplift marginalized communities in Nelson County, Virginia, where her ancestors enslaved black people. Two annual scholarships will be awarded to Black or Native American high school or adult college-bound students, with the hope of raising more funds to benefit more communities. To learn more, visit www.ciilsscholarshipfoundation.org
Education
2022 Studio BFA Photography Candidate, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia
2018 Associate of Arts, Georgia Perimeter College, Atlanta, Georgia
2011 Art Institute of Atlanta, Commercial Diploma: Photography, Atlanta, Georgia
2000 Piedmont Virginia Community College
1997 Virginia Commonwealth University
Selected Exhibitions
2022 I Descended Out of Nothing Into Green, ExLucis, Juried Show, Juried By Yanique Norman
2022 Ernest G. Welch Juried Show, Juror
2022 GSU Spring BFA Student Show
2021 Inside/Out, Test Strip Gallery, Collaboration CCA & SF Camerawork, San Francisco, California
2021 Gallery 2, Kristofer Laméy Gallery, Atlanta Georgia
2021 Earnest G. Welch Annual Juried Student Exhibition, Atlanta Georgia, Juror Theo Tyson
2021 Midwest Center for Photography, Wichita Kansas, Juror Linda Robinson
2020 PushPIN 2020, Atlanta Photography Group, Atlanta Georgia
2019 People, Places, Things, Madison-Morgan Cultural Center, Madison Georgia, Juror Dr. Samuel Gerace III, Atlanta Photography Group
2019 Sky High Skies, Transpace Gallery, Illinois State University, Normal Illinois, Curator Anthony Hamilton (website)
2019 2F is for Photo, Cage Space, Georgia State University
2018 Synchronicity, Solo Exhibit, Georgia State Perimeter College, Dunwoody, Georgia
2018 Photo Buckhead, Buckhead Library, Juror Michael James O’Brien, APG
2012 Encore: A Look at Music, The Kiernan Gallery, Curator Kat Kiernan, Lexington, Virginia
2011 Paducah Photo 2011, Paducah, Kentucky
Relevant Experience
2020 – Present Darkroom Lab Assistant, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia
2020 - Present Equipment Management, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia
2020 - Present Print Lab Assistant, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia
2020 - Present ExLucis, Vice President, Georgia State University Photography Club, Atlanta, Georgia
Permanent Collections
2021 Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia
Publications
2020 Black and White Magazine, Children Category/Single Image, Special Issue
2020 Girls Life Magazine, December, 7 Things not to say to disabled people, GLM (Illustrations)
2019 Love What Matters, Sarah Todd Hammer (Illustrations)
2019 Girls Life Magazine, Feb/March 2019 – 11 Things I want you to know about living with a Disability (Illustrations)
2019 City Lifestyle Magazine, The Public House inside Hotel Indigo, formerly Vinings Lifestyle Magazine (Illustrations)
2016 City Lifestyle Magazine, How the Cookie Crumbles, formerly Vinings Lifestyle Magazine (Illustrations)
2016 Equally Wed, When you can’t wait a moment longer to propose, January, EW Website
2013 Spring/Summer/Winter Issues, Shepherd Spinal Column Magazine
2012 Encore: A Look at Music, The Kiernan Gallery, Lexington, Virginia
Awards
2022 Ernest G. Welch Photography Scholarship
2022 Newcombe Scholarship Award
2022 Georgia State University Research Conference, 3rd Place Artistic Displays
2021 Excellence in University Assistantships Program Award, Scholarship
2017 Tamron Student Showcase, Honorable Mention
2016 Photographer’s Forum Best of College Photography, Honorable Mention
2016 Photographer’s Forum Best of Photography, Honorable Mention
2015 Popular Photography Readers’ Photo Contest, Honorable Mention
2014 Roswell Photographic Society Honorable Mention
2013 Photographer’s Forum Best of Photography, Honorable Mention
2011 Photographer’s Forum Best of Photography, Honorable Mention
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