The Design of Identity Politics and Tribalism

This virtual roundtable discussion with TRIIIBE has been postponed. 

Stay tuned for a new time and date for our virtual roundtable discussion with TRIIIBE, four artists who explore tribalism and identity in unexpected ways. Alicia, Kelly and Sara Casilio are identical triplets who live inextricable lives. They have lived together, worked together and have made artwork together for much of their lives. In 2006, they founded TRIIIBE, an ongoing creative collaboration with photographer Cary Wolinsky.

Some have described the growing polarization in culture and politics as a “retreat to tribalism.” Critics warn that destructive tribalism is hardwired within the human brain and that tribes are “badges of identity, not of thought, and they play “zero-sum politics.” In TRIIBE’s own words, “The country has become increasingly divided, and we wanted to understand why. The answer we kept returning to was tribalism based on the assumptions that we cultivated about each other. Cary’s traveling the world had given him a vast perspective on how people identify themselves and each other. Alicia, Sara, and Kelly’s experience of being triplets had made them intimately aware of what it means to be an “us” and a “them.”