Tameka Norris - MEKA JEAN: HOW SHE GOT GOOD

Tameka Norris - MEKA JEAN: HOW SHE GOT GOOD
28 October 2014
As part of Prospect.3: Notes for Now, May gallery & residency debuts a feature-length ?lm and a video installation by New Orleans-based artist Tameka Norris.
Meka Jean: How She Got Good follows a semi-autobiographical protagonist as she struggles to de?ne herself in relation to her surroundings. How She Got Good is a collage of fragments—in the forms of music videos, soap operas, and high-art ?lms—that highlights moments when Meka Jean’s identity breaks down and reveals itself in new ways, confusing distinctions between the real & the scripted and between the self & others.
Norris deconstructs Meka Jean even further through a multi-channel installation composed of production footage, underscoring the inherent performativity of art and identity and tracing the evolution of the character herself.
How She Got Good is equally a ?lm about New Orleans, a city undergoing rapid socio-economic shifts alongside Meka Jean’s constantly changing conceptions of herself. The Meka Jean Project extended into real communities in the Ninth Ward through its primarily local cast and crew.
May gallery & residency
2839 North Robertson St
New Orleans, LA 70117
http://may-neworleans.org
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