Decoded-ed, 2023
40 windows, 55 x 27 inches each
vinyl on glass
Papers, petitions, and passes, were all tools that Black people employed to escape. The relationship between literacy (to read, to count) and legibility (to be read, to be gathered, to be understood)... is a code that Black people bend, break, and navigate in order to survive.
The practice of coding and decoding can be found throughout Valoris' work; in zines, pictographs, scribbles, numbers, text, and the use of paper, cloth, and found objects. Having created over 60 zines that contain hundreds of research doodles and reflections, Valoris uses doodling as a way of listening and decoding. These doodles become a code that obscures knowing, and deepens understanding by merging historical record with collective imaginings and personal reflections.
Photographs by Jordana Rubenstein-Edberg