Endia Beal: Spaces of Comfort

Spaces of Comfort is the result of a two-year-long residency with internationally acclaimed artist Endia Beal, commissioned by Davidson College, with the support of the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation. Over the course of the residency, Beal met with more than 100 students, on campus and via Zoom, for group conversations and one-on-one listening sessions. During her individual conversations with students, drawing on her experience as a Black woman attending predominantly white universities, Beal asked students about their occupation of space: What is your space of comfort on campus? Where do you feel seen and heard? Where can you be yourself? Where do you choose not to go on campus?

Beal connected with students from across campus, gaining insight into the social dynamics of student life. The conversations revealed that most students gravitated to individuals who had similar backgrounds and interests. Accordingly, they spent the majority of their time in the same spaces with the same students.

To create Spaces of Comfort—eight photographic diptychs featuring sixteen students—Beal asked participants to reimagine campus life through someone else’s eyes. She paired students who did not know each other and then photographed each student in the other’s space of comfort on campus. The paired students were present for each other’s photo shoots and later wrote about their experiences. In some cases, one person’s space of comfort was the other’s place of discomfort. Despite the discomfort many students experienced while being in another’s space, their exploration of the unfamiliar often led to the realization that we are more similar than we may appear on the surface. Beal often uses her art to bring about awareness, which is the first step toward change.