Salome Asega | (under)REPRESENTED

Sheila C. Johnson Design Center
Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries
66 Fifth Ave
Parsons School of Design

(under)REPRESENT(ed) is an exhibition that features Parsons alumni of color whose creative practices explore the lived experience of race and aim to dismantle systems of racism.


Salome Asega, MFA Design and Technology '14

Salome Asega is a Brooklyn-based artist and researcher whose practice celebrates dissensus and multivocality. She is the co-host of speculative talk show Hyperopia: 20/30 Vision on bel-air radio and the Assistant Director of POWRPLNT, a digital art collaboratory. Salome has participated in residencies and fellowships at Eyebeam, New Museum, and the Laundromat Project. She also has given presentations at New Inc, Performa, Eyeo, and the Schomburg Center. Salome is currently showing work in the 11th Shanghai Biennale. She received her MFA from Parsons School of Design at The New School in Design and Technology and her BA from New York University in Social Practice.


Iyapo Films: Artifact 12, Iyapo Films: Artifact 111

Salome Asega, MFA Design and Technology ’14 and Ayodamola Okunseinde, MFA Design and Technology ’15 2016,
2017
Video (Runtime 1:27), Video (Runtime 3:18)

Iyapo Repository is a resource library which houses a collection of digital and physical artifacts created to affirm and project the future of people of African descent. The collection is developed through a series of participatory workshops where participants become archivists of a future history they envision. Participants sketch out and rapid prototype future artifacts and the repository then works to bring a select few of these artifacts to life so that they are completely technologically functioning objects that stay true to the participants’ original blueprints. Pulled from our Moving Image Division, the films on display contextualize such artifacts. Alongside the artifacts and films, Iyapo Repository exhibits manuscripts, rare media, and more.

Would you describe your career path as typical? Why or why not?

I think our career paths are the new normal. We're part of a generation of artists and creative entrepreneurs who understand their skill sets as crossing disciplines. We're able to enter and exit different spaces and not feel confined to working for one entity.

In what ways have your identities impacted your education and career paths?

We have a heightened awareness that we have been granted access to digital resources and literacies by entering certain design and tech spaces, which I think has pushed us to think about how we can leverage this privilege to create new access avenues for more inclusive economies.

What advice would you share with current Parsons students?

Never settle in comfort. Turn things upside down every once in a while.