Spirit More Than

creative contribution

Amber Janay Cooper

artist statement

I embrace world-building as a spiritual art practice. My collage practice cites Octavia Butler’s mandate to “create your own worlds” and “write yourself in.”1 My work also responds to another Black woman speculative fiction writer, N. K. Jemisin, who wondered—as the Jetsons glided through a predominantly white utopia in the upper atmosphere—“What happened to the people beneath the clouds?”2 The world beneath the clouds that I conjure with paper collages using vintage Black ephemera is rooted at the intersection of Blackness, queerness, peace, and piety. It is a world where supreme beings are diverse and within our reach, visible and tangibly involved in the Earth realm, longing for us unconditionally as we are seeking them.

The collages exist in a world where Blackness is deep, boundless, blending with flora and fauna, and known by an omnipresent higher power depicted as a single eye or an overlooking guardian. Human/creature hybrids and disembodied forms as in Pour Over and Eve break down the bondage of the human form and accompanying social constructs, allowing the subjects to realize they are as essential to creation as the first mother Eve and worthy of divine intercession.. As a composer of cut paper, I learn about myself, practice vulnerability, and promote the imagination as a liberatory tool.

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