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Care & Capital

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This paper explores the profound and invisible entanglement between human morality, the social construction of debt, and the practice of love within marginalized communities. Beginning with an interrogation of "social debt"—the idea that identity is often treated as a moral deficit or a "bad investment" by the state—I examine how the logic of capitalism infiltrates our most intimate relationships. Through a blend of personal memoir and artistic inquiry, I trace my own experiences of love as an "economy of survival," where care is often shaped by intersectional and racialized expectations of labor. Tension, friction, and capacity for contradiction are all central to this exploration. In my oscillation between traditional portraiture to conceptual, interactive installations and dialogic-based exploration, I offer parallel investigations into intimacy under capitalism. Both types of investigative forms exist in the same thematic space. My portraits offer visual sanctuaries of resolved social debt, while my socially engaged practice moves towards a generational audit of our structures. These projects contend with one another, answer one another, & raise their own questions around the economics of intimacy.

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