about/ statement/ Cv

About

Buchanan was born in Manhattan, NY. She holds an MFA from the Milton Avery Graduate School at Bard College and a BFA in Illustration from Parsons School of Design. Buchanan uses video, animation, photographs, illustrations, and drawings to create narratives of survival strategies. Buchanan’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at Syracuse International Film Festival, Studio Museum in Harlem, Site: Santa Fe, Slamdance International Film Festival, Hammer Museum/UCLA, Boite-en-Valise at the 57th Venice Biennale, BOXOProjects, Society of Illustrators,  Everson Museum of Art, Munson Williams Proctor Museum of Art, Urban Video Projects, Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Rencontres International Paris/Berlin among others. Buchanan co-founded Buckwheat Space 2019-2020, an artist residency in the Mojave Desert. She recently retired from Syracuse University and lives in Morongo Valley, California.

Artist Statement

In my drawing and video work my focus is on the Black body as an object, symbol, and story. This embodiment of curiosity serves as a "dark" and weighty presence. I utilize fragments of histories; personal,  individuals, family, and community experiences of "otherness" and danger.

The fragmented forms I employ represent both a space and a non-space of discomfort. The work functions simultaneously as objects, subjects, shadows, symbols, and erasure. The shift between these definitions are one answer to multiple societal constraints we are subjected to. In the act of creating this work, I seek a mechanism for recovery by allowing these ideas to be fully realized.