In college, I learned things about our history that I can’t seem to shake, nor do I think I’m supposed to. What I’ve learned continues to shape what I frame. As a kid, bubbling in “African American” on scantrons always stumped me; and I’m still learning what that means.
Art gives me a chance to sit with people, moments, and time itself. I make the photos I needed to see as a child.
My work is rooted in the South, shaped by a landscape where symbolism, signage, and media manipulation quietly push people to one side of the fence. I’m drawn to how communities like mine are influenced, and even coerced by environmental cues left behind by people who have nothing to do with us. I’m looking at these forces and how they affect the ways in which we see the world.
I’m interested in how we move through sticks that were traversed long before we arrived, and what it means to walk through land with histories deeper than anything we were taught. We continue to grow and inhabit spaces that were never built for us, yet we still make them livable, meaningful, and ours.
Jaylen Scott
