Your cart is currently empty!
Sharon Alexie: “The culture of fashion can eat authenticity”
—
by
START
body
Model Sharon Alexie has emerged as a rising force in fashion. But she’s far from just a mannequin. Alexie has dedicated herself to art and activism, connecting with her large online audience about supporting the global uprising. Here, she’s paired in conversation with the distinctive American-born, Paris-dwelling photographer Joshua Woods, the lensman for her CR fashion story, to discuss their work, identity, and how to push the industry forward.
JW: What inspired you to pick up the paintbrush?
SA: I’m extremely, extremely sensitive and I absorb a lot of information and a lot of feelings from people. And I’m very interested in a lot of things. I was interested in justice — I wanted to be a lawyer, I wanted to be a journalist, I wanted to be a designer, and the best way I had to express myself was painting. But it’s still very hard, because the canvas is white, there is nothing. You have to create, and you have to place yourself as a creator. And I think that, as a creator, you need to have this ego and ambition that I don’t have. I need to be more confident. And sometimes I look at the canvas and I’m like, that’s scary. I don’t know. So it’s pretty rare that I finish a painting.I will say that I want to paint the things that are hidden, or that people are trying to hide. If I show them, it’s all about coherence, authenticity, and transparency with people. I want to touch a chord, I don’t want to just show things [just to show them].
JW: So you see yourself going other avenues, not just totally fashion. You see your-self doing some writing, some painting, obviously.
SA: I want to create links between different [art forms]. I wish you could be in my mind to see how things are happening, because I’m a bad speaker. [Laughs] I can’t talk really. I don’t know if you can feel it. I can express myself very well through writing and photography and paintings, but talking is so hard for me.It’s hard because I’m always thinking so much. But I don’t see life in such a microscopic way — I can’t tell what my future in fashion is, because that’s thinking small. I really see everything in such big, big space. So it’s not a question that I can answer very well.
JW: What’s your star sign?
SA: I’m a Cancer.
JW: I’m a Cancer, too. Cancers are the best people in the world.
SA: Do you practice a religion?
JW: I grew up Christian in a Baptist church in a Catholic family, I guess. My mom was Catholic and my dad was Christian and I went to Catholic school my whole life. I wore a button-up, and we were proper boys. What about you?
SA: I’m Muslim, since last year.
JW: Is anyone in your family a painter?
SA: No. I’m the first person in my family to have a high school diploma. They were all working. And so I’m the first person to be able to pursue my dreams in my family. And that’s thanks to my mother, because she helped me a lot. She really pushed me into this.
JW: I know your paintings are very reflective, and they’re very much centered around the Black experience and what you see. I feel the same way about my photography. For a while I didn’t know where I was going with the camera. I’ve always loved storytelling and I loved that component of things early on in my work, but my mentality hadn’t necessarily caught up to the actual work. It took me a while for me to show what I’m thinking and see what I’m trying to say. Sometimes it takes years and years for that to happen, for your work to catch up to where your mind is. That’s one of the reasons why I moved to Paris, to actually really slow down and be more present with myself.
SA: What are your roots?
JW: My mom is from Puerto Rico and my dad was from the South, a small town called Monroe, Louisiana. But I’ve never done one of those DNA tests to see where my ancestry is.
SA: That’s an American thing?
JW: I guess. People don’t do that in France?
SA: I mean, we are directly children of immigrants, so we know where we come from, directly from Africa. My mom was born and raised in Cameroon, and it’s the same for many Black people or people of color in France.
JW: Have you spent much time on the continent?
SA: No. I’m 20 years old, so I just discovered the wealth of Africa maybe a year or two ago. I’m figuring out how to go there. I was supposed to go to Cameroon before the quarantine, but I couldn’t make it. I’m researching Africa on the internet, and I went to Comoros, near Madagascar, with a friend for two weeks, and it was extremely powerful and spiritual.
JW: I’ve spent some time in Senegal over the last three years. I had shown my work to an older Nigerian photographer I really looked up to, Andrew Dosunmu, and he said, “You have really good work, but you need to go to Africa, man.” So then I immediately booked a plane ticket to Senegal, and went the next month. I knew when I went to Senegal — as soon as I touched on the soil — I felt this instant connection to a place that I’ve always had an idea about in my mind.As soon as I arrived, I instantly felt completely different. I felt taken aback, and thought, wow, this is my home. This is where I’m from. This is where my ancestors came from.Senegal was a place for me to escape, to get away from America and all the social injustices there. And it was incredible. It completely changed my whole perspective on being Black, being a Black American. Being there and not having to worry about turn-ing on the news and hearing about another Black boy getting gunned down, or a Black woman getting killed — it completely shifted my perspective. I get so balanced when I go to Senegal.
SA: I watched the movie you recommended, Concerning Violence, about [independence movements in Africa]. I had never seen this kind of documentary. It is pretty honest, so I really loved it. But the conclusion, I’m not really sure about the conclusion. I’m still thinking about it. But it was interesting. Did you read Frantz Fanon?
JW: I didn’t read it straight through, but I’ve read certain chapters and picked apart The Wretched of the Earth.
SA: What did you think about the movie?
JW: Well, that’s how I first learned about Thomas Sankara. I was completely blown away by his rebellious soul and how people refer to him as the Che Guevara of Africa. It completely opened my eyes to this whole other world of what colonization and materialists did to us, and the idea of us being self-sufficient. What he did for Burkina Faso was incredible. Changed the name from Upper Volta, recruiting women for the government and the army, all politicians driving the same cars. His story completely opened my eyes to what Africa should have been. And his dreams and his goals for it were taken away because the French didn’t feel how he felt.
SA: As a French person with African roots, I did some research on identity. And I had always identified myself as a Black person. But my father is —or was — white. I don’t know him. And so I don’t think I should consider myself a Black person, but rather a biracial person who is a part of the Black culture.
JW: That’s how you identify?
SA: Yes. And I think it’s really important to make these distinctions. This one-drop rule is made to define what is whiteness, what is a white person, but it’s not made to define what is a Black person or Blackness. And there is this impurity/purity thing in that definition that is so personal. And so I was thinking about that, and I just realized that the industry and society love to say that biracial people are light-skinned—people that are not obviously Black. They would like to put them forward and hide dark-skinned people.
JW: What do you think about that when it comes to fashion, dark-skinned models versus light-skinned models?
SA: I would say, I would ask myself these questions. Like a few days ago. I was thinking about light-skinned privilege and I was thinking about fashion. And I was like, there are more and more dark-skinned models, but that’s because that is the industry of image. And being a model in this industry—it’s really rude to say—but we’re seen as objects a little bit. And we, Black models, are used as a tool to not look offensive. But in reality, backstage at fashion shows for example, there are no Black people. They don’t consider Black people as they truly are in this industry.
JW: The beginning of my photography career was shooting backstage photography. I shot backstage for four years, and now I am one of the few Black photographers and people in that setting. That was my introduction to fashion, shooting fashion week and being a part of the machine— the London, Milan Paris, New York fashion machine. And so I can connect with you and understand a bit about not seeing diversity.
SA: I’m very attached to the process of saying something through your art. You don’t only make beautiful things —you are sharing a story. And [in fashion], they don’t really share the backstory. They don’t want me to share this magic, you know? So that’s why you will see a lot of white people behind the scenes and white creators and blah, blah, blah. I mean, I was thinking, how many Black designers do we have in luxury or high fashion? And I was like, not a lot.
JW: But just in the same way that they use us as a tool, I feel like we get to use them as a tool also. It’s a way of breaking the structure, if you want to talk about reparations. But I do agree. We’re gems amongst these wolves. I came out of quarantine intending to protect my space even more. What I have to say about the Black experience is valuable, especially because we haven’t been able to share this space equally for God knows how long. So I’m watching my space, in work and my personal life. I can’t have someone in my circle if they don’t understand what it is for me to be Black and my experience as a Black male. And so with that being said, how do you find yourself navigating the fashion space while creating the type of work that you want to make?
SA: I used to see the fashion industry as a monster. You can lose yourself in it. And so I also really needed this space where I was isolated, to check myself and make sure I’m still on a good path. The culture of fashion can eat authenticity. And sometimes if I’m too into fashion, I can lose myself in this. We have to produce, we have to pose and blah, blah, blah. I can’t forget about my real purpose. I’m not just some model — I’m really an artist. But I’m still trying to learn about this industry and want to be more fair, not to judge it. And I’m always thinking about how I can use this space to make something positive for our culture.
JW: There’s a misconception that fashion is this terrible industry. I’ve met some of my best friends, some of my most amazing collaborators and such incredible people while working in this industry. I definitely see fashion as a tool where people can express themselves freely and can express themselves in many ways, and not be confined and put in a box.
SA: Yes, I had this prejudice about fashion. I was watching too many movies about fashion. [Laughs] And the more you grow in the industry, the more you meet real artists and real people who bring a soul to this industry. We have both—we have authentic people, and people who just want to look like they work in fashion.
JW: I agree. That’s why I made a conscious decision to work more with Black collaborators—Black stylists, Black hair stylists, Black makeup artists, Black set designers. I’m making it a point to everybody who’s producing shoots and positioning things that it’s a Black space. For the last three or four years, I’ve been photographing Black lives. And people ask me often, “Do you only shoot Black people? Do you only have Black people to show us?” And I say, yo, these are my people. You want to hire me or you don’t? You know what I’m saying? This is what my work is about. So you’re going to fuck with me or you’re not going to fuck with me. End of story.
In quarantine, I made a decision. I asked myself, What do you have to say? What are you saying in fashion? What is your voice with fashion? And at the end of the day, I’m here to express and explore the Black experience through fashion.In doing that with my work, I think it’s important for photoshoot sets to be very diverse. There’s no reason for it to be a stiff and stuffy set. I’m curious about what your experience on set was like?
SA: My nature is very shy. I’m naturally shy, and very reserved. That’s why I’m a little bit stressed when I express myself. I have a lot of things to say but I just can’t because I don’t know —there is this barrier of shyness. Like I felt uncomfortable in the first few seconds [we were shooting] because I felt, “oh, he is like inviting me into his environment.” I don’t know you, but I don’t invite anybody to my house. It’s very precious for me to invite you into my space. So I felt like, “Oh, I have to do my job to accept his invitation, and to be as open as he has been with me for this project.” I had to talk to myself and think “It’s okay, you can do that, you can do that.” And finally I was like,“Oh my God, this is amazing.”
JW: We’re making it work. And if we’re doing something that we love to do, and we enjoy doing, then why should there be any bad energy or bad vibes? It should all feel good.
CR Fashion Book Issue 17 is now available on newsstands. To order a copy click here, and sign up for our newsletter for exclusive stories from the new issues.
Read CR Fashion Book Issue 17 Free Online Read CR Men’s Issue 11 Free Online
PHOTOGRAPHS JOSHUA WOODS
FASHION CARINE ROITFELD
STYLING ASSISTANT MARIE CHEIAKH
MAKEUP AURORE GIBRIEN
HAIR YANN TURCHI
PRODUCTION KIM NIGAY
PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT KYLE KEESE
END
prev link: https://www.crfashionbook.com/culture/a34212776/sharon-alexie-interview-fashion-model/
createdAt:Tue, 29 Sep 2020 21:25:50 +0000
displayType:Long Form Article
section:Culture