CALI M. BANKS

I began documenting my hometown of Syracuse in November 2022. When I traveled back to places of importance during my "coming of age" years, I realized many places of both solace and nostalgia have been demolished or abandoned. I started to rework this experimental, documentary project with ideas of "teardown towns" and blind tradition. Returning as an adult - confronted with the same scene for decades - also allowed me to reexamine myself, interconnectedness with the people around me, and the sense of home. Using Syracuse as my muse, a familiar landscape demonstrates a feeling of nostalgia and longing. In this work, I reveal moments of individuality and selfhood that indicate the contradictions of connection and belonging within systems that simultaneously contain and embody us. I utilize self-portraiture, still-lives, and architecture that is specific to Syracuse, and symbolism depicting bodies, ritual, and sensuality, which in turn uses nonverbal communication as a way to emphasize tradition. This project also explores the complexities of layers of existence through materialistic remnants and the essence of non-tangibility.

“Close Enough To Touch” is an exhibition of sixteen polaroid emulsion transfers that are hand beaded with traditional indigenous technique. Each image has been captured in Brooklyn, and combines both self-portraiture, still-lives, architecture that is specific to this borough, and symbolism depicting bodies, ritual, and sensuality. Red, black, and white are consistent colors throughout the work as a representation of the Lenape Tribe. Black is indicative of power, strength, aggression, and victory. Red represents happiness and beauty, but also violence and bloodshed. White is indicative of sharing and light. Gold is used to represent value and validation. Each beaded image contains one blue bead, historically known as a “spirit bead” in indigenous beadwork. This is not only a signature in every piece, but also an act of recognition to her maternal grandfather and mother.

These images were a part of a solo exhibition at Brooklyn Film Camera, December 2022 - January 2023.

Color photograms on 35mm moving image film.

Silver gelatin chemigrams made with breath, vaseline, & moisture from hands.

Captured on Kodak Vision 3 Color Negative Vision 3 16mm Film with a Bolex Rex-5 camera, edited with Ciro Guillotine Splicer on a vertical editing system by Cali M. Banks at MONO NO AWARE, Brooklyn NY 2022 *ECN-II Linear developing & timed work print by ColorLab, MD.

A Collective Music Film curated by Andi Avery and Kate E. Hinshaw

Edited by Andi Avery

An Analog Cookbook Project

Hold My Hand is a collective music video for LA-based band the Death Valley Girls that uses hand-painted 16mm film as its base. Kate & Andi mailed 100 DIY filmmaking kits to folx around North America along with a section of lyrics to the new Death Valley Girls song Hold My Hand. They edited all the footage together, and the result was the following video which premiered via Rolling Stone on August, 19, 2020.

PRESS

| Under The Radar | OutBurn | Rolling Stone | StereoGum | Joy of Violent Movement |

An exploration of sexual assault, trauma, and chronic illness.

Archival prints from Kodak single use camera, thread detail.

Void is a series of repurposed family photographs. Resembling the hidden mother portraits of the 1800s, Banks sews into these photographs to erase the parental figure that was once in the image. Void depicts divorce, loss, and pain in the artist.

“Reclamation” discusses the act of reclaiming the female body and anatomy through ritualistic performance. The pink rose motifs stem from Banks' Lenape/Munsee heritage, while the fruits and vegetables are symbols of female genitalia and pleasure.

Through photography and non-traditional processes, such as heat and acid, this body of work brings to light psychological stresses that have turned into physical pain in women’s bodies. The titles for each of the works were transcribed from short interviews I had with each participant.

A three-channel video installation that fully immerses the audience in serene blue waves. As the videos play, they will soon realize these waves are internal and external ultrasounds of a female pelvis; my own pelvis. This work follows the notion of our bodies and the ocean as one.