Artist Statement: Khalilah Maryam Al-Amin Kersey
Khalilah Maryam Al-Amin Kersey (KMAK) is an artist and writer from Convent, LA. She has always been a creator to some extent and has always enjoyed the processes more than the result itself. Currently, she has been focusing on what she believes she does best: making beautiful things.
About the Work: These three pieces are from a larger body of work called Many Infinities: Intimacy and Other Things.
The body of work in its entirety features a combination of paintings (digital and traditional) and poetry. The words came first and then visuals, and I consider them to be meditations. I began writing this when I was pregnant with my daughter, and it functions like the beginning of a conversation with my husband about her. I suppose, inevitably, that means motherhood, but that’s actually not what I had in mind when I was composing this body of work. It was simply about how much I loved my husband and how much I loved my child although she was a stranger to me at the time. During the creation of these works, I attempted to release both myself and my daughter into the Lord’s hands and care, which has proven to be more difficult than I could have ever imagined.
The first of these paintings speaks to the sanctity of marriage: “The world doesn’t know what it means to have two bodies.” In marriage, we become one, and I wanted to highlight the ways that a husband and wife come to assume a kind of ownership over one another.
“The world doesn’t know what it means to have two bodies.”, 2022, digital
The second painting, ”Me, now three”, is a reference to my pregnant self. At the time I considered myself to have three bodies: mine, my husband’s, and my daughter’s.
”Me, now three”, 2022, digital
”Me, now three”, 2022, digital
”Me, now three”, 2022, digital
The third painting, “I’ve carried us both inside myself”, continues this line of thought, acknowledging the way our daughter is both of us in one body and that I had the privilege of holding her in my womb.
“I’ve carried us both inside myself”, 2022, digital
This is the first body of work that I’ve ever completed, and it is deeply personal to me and I’m grateful to be able to share it with others.
Khalilah Maryam Al-Amin Kersey (KMAK) is an artist and writer from Convent, LA. She has always been a creator to some extent and has always enjoyed the processes more than the result itself. Currently, she has been focusing on what she believes she does best: making beautiful things.