Endia Beal is a North Carolina-based artist, curator, and author. Beal’s work merges fine arts with social justice, employing photography and video to reveal the often overlooked and unappreciated experiences unique to people of colour, especially in the corporate workplace. On view at Peckham24 are three bodies of work, Am I What You’re Looking For?, Office Scene, and Mock Interview, that probe the corporate system—one that was never designed for women of colour.

 Am I What You’re Looking For? focuses on young African American women as they navigate the transition from academia to the corporate world. The women are photographed in their family homes, set against a printed backdrop of an office space. This visual contrast positions them at the intersection of personal identity and societal expectations, highlighting the challenges they anticipate facing when entering a predominantly white, male-dominated professional environment.

In Office Scene, Beal explores the fine line between personal and private within the workplace. She confronts an experience that is both subjective, and universal to many women of colour. A rumour circulated at Beal’s workplace that her Afro and other ethnic hairstyles fascinated her white male colleagues; the men were curious about how her hair felt, and wanted to touch it. In this video work, Beal performs an unrestrained monologue of a woman intent on fulfilling these male desires, reflecting the aggression of the fantasy back to its source. We then hear the reactions of her male colleagues, which range from discomfort to arousal at having their fantasy fulfilled. 

Mock Interview features actual interview questions asked by white employers to Black women between the ages of 27 and 58. Beal outsourced these questions by asking women to send her an interview prompt they received that they deemed discriminatory and/or racist. Afterwards, Beal recruited white male students between the ages of 20 and 23 to participate in a mock interview, chosen because young white men have traditionally dominated entry level roles in the corporate sector. The men were informed that they would be asked discriminatory questions that were previously given to women of color during their interviews, and we are asked to contemplate their reactions, which range from bewildered to concerned. 

Viewed together, the works profoundly emphasise the employment discrimination faced by women of colour, both in the process of entering the workforce, and once employed. Beal aims to create a safe space to have honest conversations about these experiences, pushing the othering, the awkwardness, and the judgments stemming from racial and gender biases, out into the open.