Alissa Ohashi

Website:

www.alissaohashiart.com 

Artist Statement:

We Cannot Walk Alone was made during the month of June, 2020 and the photograph was taken during the George Floyd protests in downtown Columbus, Ohio. As a mixed-race yet white passing person listening to the critical narrative that was being discussed in our country and globally, I wanted to be conscious of the message of the images that I was capturing and publishing. I was thinking about the history of the security of protesters in our country in conjunction with the narratives and images that were being circulated in the news and on social media. The words are written directly onto the printed image in my handwriting, and they were said by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during his “I have a Dream” speech in 1963 in Washington D.C. As they did then, they continue to serve an important message for individuals in our society to remember today: “We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.” 

Biography

Alissa Ohashi is a lens-based, mixed media artist working with experimental photography, collage, printmaking and installation. Ohashi received her MFA from Columbus College of Art & Design and is an Adjunct Professor of Digital Photography at University of Cincinnati Blue Ash.  She is currently a Fellow at the Columbus Printed Arts Center and is exploring the deconstruction of identity and the reconstruction and reintegration of memory through philosophical, psychological and spiritual lenses. She was selected as an ArtPop award recipient and has had her documentary work featured on a billboard on the westside of Columbus, Ohio, as well as in the documentary video, “Called to the Front Lines.” Ohashi has been published in a variety of art publications and has been featured in multiple exhibitions, both domestically and internationally.