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FAITH ∞ McCorkle

Craft, Drawing, Multidisciplinary, Multidisciplinary Art, Multimedia, Painting, Paper / Book / Illustration, Photography, Printmaking, Public Art, Sculpture / Installation, Visual / Media

I do nothing without intention.

About the Artist

FAITH (Eleisha Faith McCorkle) is a fine artist and cultural producer whose work unifies the notions of resilience and reconstruction. FAITH uses storytelling and the process of collage to communicate the layered multidimensionality of the Black experience through creating large-scale scrolls, cooking and sharing soul food, and curating immersive experiences. FAITH’s work serves as purposeful interventions as Blackness is investigated and venerated through space, food, power, spirit, and magic. Channeling these aspects, new positions of the Black archetype are uncovered–an archetype that is nurtured, powerfully resilient, and divinely guided.  FAITH’s poetry and curatorial work deconstruct meanings woven into speech and language, curating exhibitions investigating the phonetics and etymology of words and their relations to Blackness and spirituality. FAITH discerns that words have immense power and by breaking down their roots, intentionally created exhibitions, programming, and musical compositions hold space for Black restoration and community. FAITH makes up half of the artist collective Hope and Faith ♡, an interdisciplinary art collaborative formed with twin sister, HOPE (Tonisha Hope McCorkle). The collective’s work uses collage elements and Black ritual as puzzle pieces to reconstruct the Black narrative, creating stories that serve as a spiritual process towards completion.  D.C.-born and Prince George’s raised, FAITH holds a BFA in Studio Art with a concentration in Social and Cultural Analysis from New York University. FAITH has received a 2024 Andy Warhol Foundation’s GritFund Grant, an MSAC Creativity Grant, a DC CAH Art Bank Grant, a Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Award, and has work permanently installed at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in D.C. Currently living and working in Baltimore, Maryland, FAITH is an Artist-in-Residence with Creative Alliance and a Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance Urban Arts Leadership 2024 Fellow, breaking through limitations and emerging as a leader in the arts sector.

FAITH ∞ McCorkle website FAITH ∞ FAITH ∞ McCorkle website Hope & Faith ♡

Featured Work

Photos

In Wendy II, I pay homage to her mother with an acrylic poured painting. On a triangular, hand-constructed canvas, I imitate a waterfall with various wavering blues. My mother loved the color blue, specifically turquoise, and mentioned how she wanted her ashes to be spread into a waterfall when she passed. My mother was survived by three children, hence the three directions and currents displayed in the piece.
After spending some nights at Flushing Hospital Medical Center’s Mental Health Clinic for treatment, I reflected on my time there with this piece. I had been struggling with my depression for years and it was here in April of 2019 when I finally received a proper diagnosis and monitored medication. It was a tough time staying at the hospital, unable to write in my journal or talk to Tonisha due to the hospital seizing all items that put me at risk (i.e. cell phone, pens, necklace, etc.) I had to argue with them to keep my glasses. There were not many windows at the Center, those that were there were small and barred. This is symbolized through the yellow watercolor streaks in the piece, signifying the little light rays seen while undergoing treatment. The dimmed lit and depressed nature of the Center is shown through the use of the urgent, convoluted black strokes on the canvas. The self-constructed flowers are arranged as a clock to indicate the scheduled times the Center underwent, with lunch being at 12, visitation at 2 and 6, art therapy at 4 and lights out at 9. Tonisha would travel over an hour from Manhattan by two trains and a bus to get back and forth to me. As I reminisce about this low point, I find gratefulness in having such an amazing sister like Tonisha and gratefulness in the experience, unearthing the suppressed emotions I had been facing since before I was an adolescent. FHMC chronicles this milestone in my life and serves as a marker for the beginning of getting help.
Facing precarity as a black body, I engage with the concept of inversion. “Nervous” depicts linoleum prints of tree roots, one inverted and including selected text from an eviction notice. Housing insecurity is prevalent in disadvantaged communities, prompting me to comment on the dreadful and uprooting process I’ve experienced myself. The piece symbolizes the nervous system network and root chakra, the energy associated with stability and physiological needs. It is viewed from opposite sides, creating a lenticular image that forces you to see from different perspectives. Speaking towards the resiliency of my community, “Nervous” represents a foundation of strong roots and an incessant weathering of storms.

Videos

  • remnants.

    See more information about remnants.
    Engaging with the pieces of myself that have been left behind, stolen, lost, and transformed, I filmed pivotal moments in my journey toward recovery.

    “remnants.” features fire, love, blood, death, and loss. It travels across the flooding of grief after visiting an old storage unit and reveals the debilitating pain of rebuilding after sickness and assault.
    Medium: Short film
    Year: 2020
    Details: 7:49 min run-time

Written Works