"Moving Through is a triptych collage that continues from an earlier work of mine, Falling Blindly With Us, beginning a small series that explores all-white parties, which as a party concept started in Miami as a fundraising event in the 1980s for HIV/AIDS charities by Frank Wager and Jorge Suarez, to now being championed by figures such as Michael Rubin, and Sean Combs as parties that symbolize wealth power, luxury and celebrity.

The assemblage is composed of two cropped images from Michael Rubin’s 2023 All-White Party—one featuring Rubin alongside professional American football player Damar Hamlin, and the other showing Cameroonian-American professional basketball player Joel Embiid. These images are juxtaposed with a central image of Franklin Clinton, a fictional video game character from the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) franchise who frequently appears in my work, overlaid with self designed distorted black laser-cut acrylic text.

The triptych uses cropped images of body language to render intimacy and tension as it relates to the interpersonal relationship of “host” and “guest” at these parties, examining the cult-like nature and fascination with such gatherings, which often project imagery of success and purity. However, through this curated juxtaposition, the work questions how much desire and acceptance are involved in this initiation into higher social status."

Karryl Eugene