LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs
Artist Statement
I am on a mission to be multifaceted. I combine digital and analog manipulated sound, text, vocal improvisation and video into the performance of my poetry. The materials I utilize ranges from DJ equipment to phrasebooks. Of recent interest to me is the performance – being anything from the dynamic orator to the stoic suit and tie – in ways that deconstruct the ‘act of reading.’ Constant is my curiosity with multilingualism and colored folk. When I am not thinking art in the literal sense, I bake flans and sweet potato pies. I curate. I direct. In sum, my craft exists due to a mash-up of mangled sketchbooks, guitar pedals, heaps of cables, art catalogues, language dictionaries and a leather hole puncher. I exist because my methods often find me lost to mistranslation, a no te entiendo, a reformed Indian interpreter risking it all to correct the wrongs of her predecessors.
While At Headlands
While at Headlands, I will continue developing my latest multi-genre take on the ‘act of reading.’ Muscle Memory is an intimate interrogation of the body through injury focusing largely on the mythology of my body and its transcendence to and away from dance. Through text and video, I will revisit the physical vocabularies I loved and questioned. Most recently, I presented a 30-minute segment of Muscle Memory at the Pillsbury Theatre House in Minneapolis with video by Marilys Ernst, dramaturgy by Zac Jaffe and choreography by Maria Bauman. Once completed, my hopes are to produce an hour-long multi media performance of MM with an accompanying chapbook. During my residency, I will continue to craft a series of flash pieces and poems for both the chapbook and performance. Portions of the text will also be incorporated into the video work. During my off-days, I will resume an on-going project called a question of ancestry that combines beadwork with text.
Selected Video
