Mikayla Whitmore
"Laughing When Sad," 2018
Archival metallic print
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Courtesy of an anonymous donor.

Mikayla Whitmore is a Las Vegas artist who works in photography, sculpture, and installation. This artwork comes from a series of photographs that prioritize what the artist describes as “the emotional space of learning to navigate while willfully getting lost.” In the winter of 2018 they were surprised to find ice in their front yard on an unusually cold day and decided to decorate it with food dye. They tested a variety of dye-pictures but “nothing felt as genuine as that face … Laughing When Sad comes from a place I think some can relate to—the feeling of having to put up a front or face to the outer world, even when we feel a completely different emotional state internally.”
(DKS)

This ice was found in an unexpected place — the front yard gutter in a Las Vegas neighborhood. Natural ice in the city is fleeting and rare. “By the afternoon,” writes Whitmore, “it had mostly melted away, much like the casino façades and family members lost over the passing years. Nostalgic for a sense of home, in a place that changes identities daily.”

While the ice was still fresh the artist decorated it with food dye. She expected the lines to stay sharp, but the smiling face she drew quickly dissolved into a slightly off, very somber expression. She tried a few other shapes but “nothing felt as genuine as that face … Laughing When Sad comes from a place I think some can relate to — the feeling of having to put up a front or face to the outer world, even when we feel a completely different emotional state internally.”