About Conceal Project

Who are we really? There are roles we choose to play in our lives and others are imposed on us. Each role frequently requires a select appearance: a costume or a mask. Our true identities are concealed beneath the guise, yet identity is such a malleable thing. One is most free when operating in a clandestine fashion. Surrogate identities and anonymity allows a transformation of personality to emerge. Of course, there is a dark and enforced side to this transformation as well, especially the imposition of prisoner garb, medical devices, and military uniforms. In Dawn's grids, the diversity and divine madness of everyday life is brought forth, for most of us traffic with a variety of individuals, whether in face-to-face or mediated situations, on a day-to-day basis. By combining these characters, unusual stories are birthed of relationships between unlikely people. The grids reveal the complexity of that daily experience and evoke the nuances and pitfalls of communication in our increasingly busy and uber-connected world. While the artist's figures are traditionally painted on individual supports, as a large grouping, they are on the pulse of a very contemporary social phenomenon evincing mass communication across a variety of platforms and identity lines. This is a situation that threatens to grow only more multifaceted in the coming years. 

excerpt from the essay: On Dawn Black's Conceal Project

                                       by Andrea Pollan, Director, Curator's Office, Washington ,DC