When Meris was in the fifth grade, he won a school-wide essay competition entitled: “Why is your mom the greatest mom in the world?” He read the essay to the entire school population during assembly. His mother was awarded a silicone Tupperware set for winning the essay contest. Meris still remembers the look on his mom’s face and the cheap plastic bins we went home with that afternoon
Black Woman and child, 2023, silicone, hydrocal, and steel
Black woman and child (2023) is a recasting of Madonna Lita using silicone, both as a medical reference and a recurring sculptural motif. Black woman and child (2023) is connected to Meris’ earlier kinetic series, Now You See Me; Now You Don’t.
In both of these bodies of work, the subjects are left ‘white’ referencing Mr Krimbo in Ralph
Ellison’s epic novel Invisible Man, “if it’s optic white, it’s the right white.”