Over the next few weeks, SVA will be highlighting some of the many outstanding projects by its 2019 Alumni Scholarship Award winners. Today's featured works are by BFA Photography & Video student Francena Ottley , whose multimedia installation, Mayoridad, highlights a fantasy teenage bedroom while capturing the emotions of her past.
Tell us about your project. What inspired the idea?
Mayoridad, Coming of Age, is an installation highlighting a fantasy teenage bedroom that creates a safe space I wished I had as a kid. Growing up, I never had a space to call my own. A space where I can fully be myself and find peace. I grew up sharing a room with my siblings and idolizing all the things that were meant for me to change the way I view myself. Whether it was the posters on my wall, the commercials and shows on TV, or the beauty products that sat on my vanity, society was pressuring me to conform to its standards of beauty. I needed to have straight hair, clear skin, wear a size 2 and “act like a lady.” Inspired by my own experiences with this installation, I take the negative beauty standards of the past along with stereotypes and biases of being a woman of color, and empower and elevate young women. From the vagina patches on the wall, to the silkscreened pads around the bathroom, or the Coming of Age tapestry, I use the room to educate young women about their bodies and break the taboos around menstrual cycles, sex and birth.

What most surprised you once you started working on the project?
What always surprises me the most is how fast I'm able to turn my ideas into physical pieces. It usually takes me weeks or months to come up with a single concept, but once I'm inspired, I just start pushing out pieces, from embroideries to sculptures to photographs and video. I once made an entire library of 100-plus sculptured books in only two weeks.

"Always remain true to yourself and your ideas"

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