Artist Statement​​​​​​​

My work evolves from my interest in culture, identity, equity, behavior, belonging and social norms. I have an strong desire to research these topics and tell visual stories from a socio-humanist perspective. Using photography, video and other mediums such as paper and wood, I tell narratives different than that of the dominant culture. Africans in the diaspora and my own lived experience are my focuses. Exploring and questioning the limited and biased view dominant cultures have of the misrepresented is paramount to my storytelling.

The intention of my work is to allow outsiders into worlds they normally would not have access to. It is to create connections between the disconnected and to motivate something in the viewer that encourages them to think, see and feel differently about themselves and others, thereby considering to make a change in the world – large or small. When we immerse ourselves in culture very different from our own, our views can be expanded. The effort of the work is to break barriers of communication. By reflecting on the themes in my work and one’s own limited view, barriers can be broken. Ultimately, the goal is for the viewer to realize that our shared humanity is better understood when experiencing narratives about cultures different from our own.

Artist Bio​​​​​​​

Yeefah Thurman is a multi-media assemblage artist and educator. She was raised in a home filled with art from the African diaspora by parents who encouraged her artistic talents. By ninth grade she was accepted into the celebrated Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. After graduation she pursued creative avenues in fashion as a model and creative consultant. While homeschooling her children she developed an art-centered curriculum which led to her daughter winning multiple awards.

In her forties an undeniable desire to reignite her art practice pushed her to pick up a camera. In 2010 she was accepted as a mentee to the renowned photographer Jules Allen. A committed advocate for public, art Yeefah has a current installation piece in situ since 2020. In 2021 she was awarded an artist residency in Mexico to research Afro Mexican culture. In 2022 she was awarded an art grant from the city of Evanston with which she co-created a cross-cultural art curriculum and an art residency for middle schoolers. Yeefah maintains a studio in Evanston.

William Rosen, Chairman and CEO – Axial 1 Performance Science

Yeefah’s Art installation does not allow the viewer to be merely a casual observer, but instead forces the viewer to engage, interact, recognize and confront the realities of the social constructs of which we are all a part. The significance of every aspect of the piece channels its own power and meaning, with the overall effect a powerful and moving tour-de-force. Our involvement in the piece and our complicity in the cultural circumstances the piece addresses come together for the viewer as one explores each aspect of the installation and physically engages in its experience. The piece’s unique power comes from its ability to leverage that interaction to remove any distance or barriers from the viewer and draw one into the cultural and historical reality, as difficult as it may be to face. Her piece is an innovative, moving, beautiful installation that can open hearts and minds in a way that rational discourse cannot, which is the highest compliment one can pay to an art piece.

Angela G. Ray, Ph.D., Associate Professor – School of Communication Northwestern University

Situated on a street corner and presented in the form of a residential library box, “What You See/What We See” showcases the cultural pain caused across centuries by dehumanizing, white supremacist images of the people of the African diaspora, especially Black Americans. At the same time, it also presents images of joy and achievement in Black lives and Black families. With the negative images marked “Danger” and encircling the outside of the box, and the positive images inside, sheltered behind a curtain that is printed with colorful, strong African patterns, the installation interrogates cultural representation and its effects by highlighting binaries: outside and inside, violence and safety, ignorance and truth, the profane and the sacred. Approaching the box, one is confronted with a mirror image of oneself: What do you see? How does our culture make that image meaningful to others? What is the true picture? What do differences in bodies—what Du Bois called the differences of “color, hair and bone”—signify to us, and to others? Yeefah’s art demands that we ask those questions, and whatever the mirror may show about our own body, she invites us to open the box, draw aside the curtain, and see the beauty, love, pride, and power of Black America.