McKenna Crilley

CULTURAL IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Make me who I am. We all have secrets. Some of us choose to expose those secrets, while others keep them hidden. What exactly and how much we choose to reveal sometimes says more than the actual elements themselves. On Facebook, we control what we display to create our "hoped-for possible selves."

Yet we cannot control how others display themselves and how that in turn reflects back on us. I arrived at this work through my own exploration of my Cuban and Irish heritage. The experience of growing up with my Cuban family just outside Miami and subsequently spending a semester abroad in Ireland taught me about more than just my heritage.

I learned that culture defines who we are. However, culture is more than just our lineage; it includes everything from the way we dress to the people we associate with to our biological phenotypes. I invite you to explore the identities of the individuals I've presented. What do they chose to reveal? What do you think they are hiding? Who do each of the items displayed belong to? What does it expose about the individual? Arrange the objects to construct individuals' identities. Decode their secrets.

SECTOR

ADVISORS: Tanya Jung (COLL) | Brent Wahl (FNAR)