Qualeasha Wood
Qualeasha Wood (b. 1996, Long Branch, NJ) lives and works in Philadelphia, PA.Qualeasha Wood is an interdisciplinary artist whose work contemplates realities around black female embodiment that do and might exist. Inspired by a familial relationship to textiles, queer craft, Microsoft Paint and internet avatars Wood's tufted and tapestry pieces mesh traditional craft and contemporary technological materials. Together, Qualeasha navigates both an Internet environment saturated in Black Femme figures and culture, and a political and economic environment holding that embodiment at the margins. For her what are intuitive combinations of analog and cybernetic compositional processes make for a plainly contemporary exploration of Black American Femme ontology.
Work Title: LIFE SIMULATOR
Medium: Text-to-Video (Sora by Open AI)
Work Description
LIFE SIMULATOR explores survival, autonomy, and metamorphosis through the journey of Q2, a Black cyborg humanoid modeled after the artist. Set to Lana Del Rey’s “Get Free,” Q2 confronts a formidable, fractured version of herself—an embodiment of buried trauma and external control—in a climactic battle for liberation. As she navigates through shifting landscapes—an apocalyptic wasteland, a retro-futuristic monitor room, or the sterile corridors of a space station—the sequences build toward a fierce showdown, blurring the lines between self-destruction and self-preservation.
Shown across five screens mounted to a bed, with audio delivered through headphones, the piece invites viewers into a deeply intimate and overwhelming experience, mirroring the personal nature of digital media consumption while demanding a more visceral engagement. Influenced by the aesthetics of sci-fi, the emotional landscapes of Black and queer identity, and Freud’s concept of the uncanny, the work reimagines survival as not just endurance but the reclaiming of autonomy and power. LIFE SIMULATOR asks the question: what does it truly mean to break free from the forces that shape us—both external and internal—and how do we reclaim power in a world that constantly challenges our autonomy?
