DESCRIPTION
An immersive collection of art telling stories and guiding guests through a whimsical imaginative collection of experiences and material objects. This collection blends art, technology, and history to re-imagine and re-tell stories of the African Diaspora that have been excluded or marginalized due to racial and gender biases. Each offering embodies a theme of something or someone that could only exist now but reframed as if it did exist in a prior time, space, or dimension.
NOTES FROM DIAPHANOUS
Notes from Diaphanous is a collection of behind-the-scenes material culture and prototypes from the Diaphanous project. This exhibition at the Colored Girls Museum, running until November, is part of the museum's Intermission exhibition and features a motion-responsive installation, AR canvases, and detailed plans for the project. For this iteration of the exhibition, we will be focusing on soft spaces, channeling Sankofa through archival images, imagined photographs, and textile art that emphasize protection and preservation. Underpinned by the philosophy of Sankofa as a means to imagine the future, this exhibition is a blend of old and new technologies and protective practices.
Exhibiting at The Colored Girls Museum, Philadelphia, up until Nov 2024
ILE OMI: HOUSE OF WATER OFFERING
Ile Omi: House of Water is a large scale, multi-channel immersive video installation. It is inspired by intersectional African Diasporic culture, West African culture and chronophysics, the field of physics that specifically deals with the concept of time and time travel. It showcases a thriving underwater community throughout various times. The imagined people are the descendants of the African souls lost during transatlantic slave voyages. The installation transports visitors to a futuristic world where these descendants have adapted to an underwater lifestyle and formed a thriving, communal society.
The video installation creates an immersive underwater environment filled with vibrant colors, textures, and sounds. The work contains a blend of iconography and images inspired by various traditional West African religions and Yoruba customs and imaginings of what a future derived from this experience would look, sound and feel like. Visitors are invited to explore this underwater world and to witness the communities rich cultural traditions, innovative technologies, and harmonious relationships with the surrounding marine ecosystem.
The project uses a combination of archival photography, AI-generated photographs, combined with a custom score to create an alternate reality where visitors can explore alternative histories and futures that were previously deemed impossible. By presenting this alternate reality, the installation invites visitors to re-imagine the potential of humanity and to question the limitations imposed by history and circumstance.
Clip of Ile Omi exhibited at Par Project
GOING PLACES
An Exhibition and Printing Play Date with DIY Printing Studio and The Mz. Icar Collective
These limited edition 10 color screen prints will be available on our site this 4/20.
The collective has been thematically working on envisioning best-case scenarios, visual pieces, and symbols that imagine the paths to get to those ideal scenarios. These collage pieces feature images from our archives. AI-generated images and illustrated pieces. Through this series of work, we are playing with new technologies, studying traditional West African spirituality along with diasporic ancestry, and using this to frame future paths.
We are thinking about how do we incorporate history, tradition, and technology as tools that help tell stories that inspire. Sometimes we just need to see ourselves in glorious alternative ways.
This collection of work envisions progress, movement, internal or external but mostly focuses on imagining how we get to our ideal scenarios.
SOFT SPACE OFFERING
Currently Exhibiting at the Fitler Club In Philadelphia as part of our Artist Residency.
This collection of work is an exploration of the power of softness, both in a literal and figurative sense. Through a combination of photo illustrations and braid installation pieces, We aim to create an environment that celebrates the beauty and strength of softness, particularly as it is embodied by Black people.
In this work, We challenge conventional notions of what strength and power look like, and instead focus on the ways in which softness can be a powerful force for change. We use soft materials such as yarn and pom poms to create tactile and sensory installations that invite the viewer to engage with their surroundings and connect with their emotions.
Our AR inhanced photo illustrations capture stoically posed Black people in soft spaces, showing how softness and strength coexist. Through the use of natural lighting and strong poses, and soft florals we create a space that feels regal and nurturing, inviting the viewer to connect with their own emotional experiences.
Our braid installation is designed to be immersive, with soft textures and playful colors creating a whimsical and inviting atmosphere. Through this installation, We hope to create a space where viewers can let go of their guard and allow themselves to be vulnerable, even if just for a moment.
Through this collection of work, We celebrate the power of softness, particularly as it is embodied by Black people. We challenge the notion of who embodies that strength and power and invite viewers to see the beauty and strength that can be found in vulnerability and emotional openness.
