Shani Peters

Mirage I
Year: 2007
Medium: Digital print, plexi-glass, screen-print
Dimensions: 15.5" x 11 "

Artist Statement:

Mirage I & II explore issues prevalent in my larger art practice including the roles of family and nurturing in society and social developments, particularly those made during the Black Power movements of the1960s and 70s.  My practice also makes constant reference to these ideas through the perspective of my personal experiences and perception of history.  The Mirage pieces are particularly representative of this personal reference.  The overlaid image of uniformed children is taken from a Black Panther Party social program class picture.  The steps they are resituated on in these works are those of the old P.S. 186 on 145th St. between Broadway and Amsterdam Ave.  This abandoned school building is the greatest reminder for my husband and I that the ground we walk everyday is the same our family has tread for years and years.  The apartment in which we currently reside is about a block away from P.S. 186 and from the 6th floor apartment that my husband’s father and 8 siblings grew up in over 40 years ago.  The school in the photograph is the one in which the 9 Peters children received their elementary educations. 

The presence of this partially boarded, dilapidating building, with all it’s personal and larger societal references, in my daily life is a living metaphor for the current state of my adopted home: Harlem, New York.  Though it has seen some rough times its beauty pierces through its despair, emitting a magnetic attraction and inspiring more beauty all the time. 

Mirage I & II are part of a larger Mirage Series.  They can be hung together or separate.