Stara D'Haiti

Artist Statement

I create multimedia projects to think critically of the human experience, especially of its abstract essences (i.e. ontology). I am interested in the fundamental ways we come to know ourselves and the environment and exist across space and time. Conducting interdisciplinary research at the interstices of Black Trans* and Feminist thought, anthropology, physical sciences, and spiritual wisdom, I examine how individual journeys and their experiences , shape present and growing constructs of the world. Through the artistry of editorial and costume makeup, cosmetology, and the visual arts, I imagine alternative landscapes in which the versatility of human form and experience are expressed. My work uses a multitude of shapes and colors, textures, gradients, fabrics, and materials to represent my expectations and aspirations for our world. I believe digesting different artistic experiences can be a catalyst for progression, can inspire new insight and perspectives. My work promotes meditation on collective healing and how we can utilize the wisdom of the past to take advantage of the present in order to manifest our most desired future?

Biography

Stara D’Haiti(any/all pronouns) is an Afro-Caribbean makeup and visual artist, who creates work as a vehicle to share life-affirming thoughts. They are currently a student at Stanford University, '24, with intended majors of African and African American Studies and Energy Resources Engineering. Their work uses a broad variety of visual arts and material aesthetics as a storytelling device to investigate standards of beauty, love, identity, judgment, fear, community, and creativity. With productions built on principles of boundlessness, they address, resist, and subvert white supremacy+its institutions. Centered in the process of their art, Stara continues to build their portfolio in makeup artistry, costume design (hair, fashion, etc.), world-building, and multimedia art direction, while exploring their practice as an act of social movement and (self)transformation. Their current project titled "Unknown Territories" will be their first large-scale project supported by fellowship at the Institute for Diversity in the Arts (read more below).

Email: stara@stanford.edu

Unknown Territories

Summary

"Unknown Territories" is a multimedia, audiovisual that explores the topics of identity, personhood, and socialization through the lens of duality. The body of work combines usages of beauty and art direction, social thought, and digital video/content production to convey these complex narratives. Contemplating questions of what and who is “i”, this project celebrates identity and its limitless form(s) through various interpretive makeup looks and immersive scenes.

“Who [am I] are we?” and “where do we come from?”. Identity is defined as the fact of being, what makes something uniquely itself, who or what a person or thing is. “Unknown Territories” depicts a fictional dialogue betw among created caricatures to explore the topics of identity and personhood.

My art-practice, makeup, is about transformation. The visual environments expand the breadth of understanding. This project ultimately seeks to communicate creative identity. The conveyal of characters as supernatural, ethereal beings, who have a great capacity for understanding the human experience and condition helps create a world of identity beyond society's current limitations. This project is an immersive conception of our complexity and interconnectedness. The intent is to inspire others to take the journey to gain knowledge of self, to charter those unknown territories. Self-awareness is the first step in any transformation (individual or collective).

Huge thank you to all IDA and CBPA fellows for the constant love, support, and inspiration, and to our staff A-lan, Amara, Evelyn, Erina, and Grace for being the driving for of this energy.

There is no definitive conclusion or answer to the questions introduced in this project. Identity itself is an ever-changing entity that will have an ever-changing conversation surrounding it. This project is a simple invitation to ponder these notions; to hear, listen, learn, overstand, heal, and reach your own conclusions on the matter. I also welcome digestion of this work as pure entertainment, for appreciation of the work of aesthetics and art. It is all part of the process. Identity is the subjective process of becoming and being, and that can be what or whoever you so desire.

Thank you for your time and welcome to this space! Much love <3