K E N N E D I
S I L E S
Kennedi’s work begins with color. It is direct, saturated, and purposeful, forming a visual language where emotion, memory, and presence take shape. In her compositions, color moves beyond decoration and becomes structural, guiding how each piece is experienced. Working between digital and physical space, she builds layered surfaces where texture and hue act as both material and voice, holding attention on feeling, visibility, and connection.
At 21, Kennedi lives and works in the Midlands of South Carolina. Rooted in Rock Hill, her practice continues to grow through a constant engagement with making. She moves between digital collage and sculpture without limiting herself to one medium, driven by a need to build, assemble, and rework ideas. Her process is hands-on and exploratory. She leans into unfamiliar methods, often prioritizing the physical act of making. Whether working with fabric, adhesive, or digital archives, her pieces carry a sense of immediacy, as if they are shaped through action rather than fixed plans.
Her collages, both digital and physical, begin with images of Black subjects, often sourced from personal or archival material. Through layering and reconstruction, she shifts these images into new compositions that reduce specificity while strengthening recognition. Faces are often removed or softened, allowing the figures to move beyond individual identity and into a shared space. This approach opens the work to broader connection, especially for Black viewers who may see themselves reflected in the imagery. The collages engage memory, relationships, and presence without relying on singular narratives.
Her sculptural work extends these ideas into three dimensions. Using welded steel, fabric, plexiglass, and paint, Kennedi creates forms that balance structure and movement. The work draws from the tonal and emotional qualities of jazz and blues, translating sound into line, color, and spatial rhythm. These pieces often reference domestic memory, including the Afrocentric objects that once filled her grandmother’s home, carrying those visual influences into new forms.
Process remains central to her practice. Time, labor, and transformation are visible in each piece, emphasizing how the work is made as much as what it becomes. Across mediums, Kennedi explores Black identity, shared histories, and the ways material can carry and reshape meaning. Through color, layering, and reconstruction, her work stays focused, tactile, and grounded in both experience and intention.
