Quinci Baker, Wish Upon a Dying Star, 2022, Steel, mixed yarn, cotton string, synthetic hair, jump rope beads, pony beads, glass beads, 144 x 32 x 32 inches.
QUINCI BAKER
Artist Statement
My mixed-media practice is an exploration of ambiguous loss and collective identity. An ambiguous loss is one that occurs without closure or a clear understanding. It is a grief that is often constant and unresolved and is a recurring theme in my work. While often associated with losing loved ones to dementia or disappearance, it can also encompass the mourning of ancestors never known, echoes of displacement from one’s homeland, and the erasure of personal and collective histories.
Given the ongoing search for answers that comes with this loss, I prioritize filling gaps in collective and personal memory. Through play and abstraction, I give form to intangible losses by recontextualizing everyday objects to embody an essence, spirit, and ethos. Craft, textile, and childhood recreational materials play a key role in my work, foregrounding emotion over understanding and asserting access, labor, and inherited language as foundational elements of my practice.
I am inspired by the secret languages that develop among marginalized groups and the mnemonic devices that reveal a cultural identity. My own social condition is my portal to the infinite. With this starting point, I investigate macro and micro perspectives in time and space. I use color, repetition, and modularity to underscore the dependence of the collective on the individual.
Quinci Baker is the 2024–2025 recipient of the Emma Bee Bernstein Fellowship.