Automythography with Artist Mequitta Ahuja

“Automythography” is a variation on the idea of an autobiography, introducing the realm of imagination and myth into the stories we know and tell about ourselves. Artist Mequitta Ahuja began each piece with a partial self-portrait. The group then worked together, not pre-planning the pieces but allowing abstract shape, color and texture to take form organically to represent the figure’s hair. Hair is significant for its many meanings for African-Americans. Historically styling of the hair has been symbolic of a range of positions from assimilation to defiance to black pride, embodying the personal is political and body politics of the feminist movement and socially determined as an indicator of class, consciousness and beauty. Working collaboratively on self-portraits challenges the very notion of a self-portrait and serves as a proposition that our visions of ourselves incorporate the values, ideas and identities of our community.

Student Artist
Iga Puchalski, Crystal Lake
Northern Illinois University

Nadia Bernal, Huntley
Ann Marie Burton, Wonder Lake
Simon Floeter, Cary
Daniel Heflin, Lake in the Hills
Jack Moore, Cary
Ann Treadwell, Crystal Lake
Rory Williamson, Lake in the Hills
Melissa Youngblood, McHenry