1495 is a collection of series that works as a compilation of visual explorations that tie Reneé back to her home and cultural roots.
The first part of the series “I did not grow up to be you, but I did grow up to be me” delves into the Black experience using Afro-futurism as a vessel for the theory of Angelism. Her exploration of Angelism encourages conversation of seeing the beauty in the struggle of feeling alienated. Reneé Simone is inspired by the idea of identifying black identity as a constant state of euphoria.
As a black woman especially, a lot of her experience is held within the irony of American society as it relates to her identity as well as using that irony to define herself and what she represents. The irony surrounding a constant struggle of being simultaneously loved and hated. Representing Black subjects as angels, and putting them in new narratives offers a disruption :
“loved and hated,
seen and unseen.”
The first part of the series “I did not grow up to be you, but I did grow up to be me” delves into the Black experience using Afro-futurism as a vessel for the theory of Angelism. Her exploration of Angelism encourages conversation of seeing the beauty in the struggle of feeling alienated. Reneé Simone is inspired by the idea of identifying black identity as a constant state of euphoria.
As a black woman especially, a lot of her experience is held within the irony of American society as it relates to her identity as well as using that irony to define herself and what she represents. The irony surrounding a constant struggle of being simultaneously loved and hated. Representing Black subjects as angels, and putting them in new narratives offers a disruption :
“loved and hated,
seen and unseen.”
