Hello, I'm Orchid.
Orchid Sylvester is a multidisciplinary artist and designer navigating the intersections of analog, digital, and virtual spaces. While her practice investigates the forensics of memory, Sylvester's explorations in fabrication and time-consciousness not only analogizes publisher and press to zeitgeist and propaganda, but renders the mimetics of her work as legitimized entities.
Relevant Art Practice Notes
The following contains writings reflecting on my work. At least, what I feel is most accurate. I'm sure the way I write and speak from a conceptual lense may feel very dense at times. Often words fall short of emotion, which is short only to brain chemistry. But, I think it's because of the futility of words that requires artists, designers, or anyone to be intentional of their actions.
"Virtuality is a recognition of converted states. Dreaming is virtual reality; so is play. Authorship is the virtuality of divinity. Engaging with virtuality requires grappling systems and processes, such as ethnographic encryption, ejection, and agency towards person-hood. The transience of virtuality renders design and story as extensions of contextualized humanity."
"There is an aspect of the metropolis/urban that is unfairly degraded as corporate and congested in contrast to the individualistic Americana of suburbia. I notice a similar parallel to fine arts in contrast to design as craft and industrial arts. I navigate ekistics as metaphor for my engagement with format in my artistic work. My celebration of metropolis/city is industrious and referential; it is an amalgamation of diaspora, of a longing for home in all forms, and of the people and movements who are, were, and will be. It is important for me to consider the cultural, social, and vocational relationships artists have to their communities because art is a catalyst for change. Design and craft are echoes of cities as they are curated for everyone; craft does so materially, while design does so contextually. In the way artists of various fields informed my engagements with the people around me, fortifying my ability to critically research, communicate, and be an advocate for equity, I believe in accessible knowledge through art, design, craft, and social practice."
// For an exhaustive list of artistic experiences and affiliations, go to CV.
Born from a Caribbean diaspora, Orchid Sylvester began life in a multifaceted climate. Conscious of the cultural and material visages from her childhood shifting with economic and environmental changes, Sylvester developed a fascination for visual art as a form of storytelling and memory. Her interest in sequential art and systems contextualizes the rhizomatc quality of her work. Sylvester became a 2x NAACP Act-SO Gold Medalist, exhibited in community-oriented galleries, showcased work the United States Capitol, and mentored under Newark-based printmaker Angela Pilgrim all before graduating Arts High School. Such a basis was the foundation that enabled her to earn a BFA from The Cooper Union, where she earned the Full Tuition Merit Scholarship, Service to the School of Art Award, and the Rhoda Lubalin Fellowship. Acclimated with art as praxis through workshops, event planning, independent instruction, and actively supporting socially engaged coalitions, she desired to explore its many disciplines in the form of design, fabrication, and craft without abandoning her interest in fine arts and illustration. Recently completing a chapter in her path toward education, Sylvester is using a well needed respite to enrich her artistic engagements and to dedicate time towards personal and community focused initiatives.
Besides giving time for personal projects, Orchid enjoys martial arts films, learning new things, and acquiring trinkets. Her favorite musicians are Massive Attack, Depeche Mode, and Gojira. She likes being indoors and outdoors, as she has a dream of having her own garden someday.