My work integrates fiction, tropes, humor and collective, lived experience to reframe pain and systematic suffering. Often working with my own black femme positionality, the work features either myself or an avatar performing loosely scripted recreations, reiterations, and retellings. These pieces take shape as alter ego and persona work, problematic lectures, amongst other personal work— all of which aim to access varied desirable fictions and real trauma. Through an alter ego entitled, “Sophia Jones,” the work focuses on reiterating and staging trauma consistently perpetrated by white, cis-men within the commercial art world. Akin to Richard Kern and Terry Richardson, Jones’ photographic practice revolves around capturing the white, cis-male at its most vulnerable and desirable. Being a black, middle-aged, female photographer— Jones has made a name for herself by being featured and published in Vogue, Vanity Fair, Interview, NYT Style, and NPR. She has also had solo shows at ICP, MoMA, with retrospectives at The Virginia Museum of Fine Art and The Whitney. While internationally celebrated, she also sees herself at the center of controversy as many former interns and models actively speak out against her practice, calling into question her ethics regarding compensation and sexual harassment. Of course, none of this is “real.” Stagings in relation to this piece exist as installations, videos, and a general virtual presence (e.i. a website, social media, blog.) The consistent fiction across media lies within the assertion of Jones’ “existence” as a problematized, black female body with seemingly unwavering social mobility and capital.