South African and U.S. Artists Explore Global Blackness in New Virtual Exhibition
This month marks one year since much of the world first reckoned with the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic. As governments announced stay-at-home orders last March, millions of people around the world came to rely on the internet for work, for their education, and to maintain personal and community connections.
As the world gathered online, stories of the disproportionate impacts of the pandemic on Black communities and other communities of colour in South Africa and the U.S. gripped our collective imaginations; as did the news of the killings of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Tony McDade in the U.S.; and of Collins Khosa in South Africa.
Against the backdrop of these dueling pandemics, the past year has seen renewed energy for transnational conversations and political actions to uncover possibilities for Black liberation.
A new exhibition that brings South African and U.S. artists together is doing important work to further that conversation.
Created by Cedric Brown, a 2019 Atlantic Fellow for Racial Equity, THE SHAPE OF BLACKNESS (SHAPE) is one of the first-ever art exhibitions (if not the only) to engage Black artists from different continents in a virtual gallery setting to unite in conversation about dismantling anti-Black racism and building fairer, more expansive Black futures.
From “It’s a Black Girl Thing” / Lebohang Motaung
From “Transcendent Iconography Series” / Nicole Dixon
SHAPE engages artists in a transnational conversation on the Black experience—past, present, and future. Participating artists include Theko Boshomane, Tshepiso Moropa, Lebohang Motaung, Lebo Thoka, and Helena Uambembe from South Africa; and Aaron Beitia, Courageous, Nicole Dixon, Michon Sanders, Brette Sims, and Abba Yahudah from the United States. Brown partnered with curators Trevor Parham of Oakstop to select the Oakland artists and with Johannesburg-based Odysseus Shirindza to select the South African artists.
In choosing South African and U.S.-based artists, the SHAPE team seeks to drive a visual dialogue about the struggles for racial equity in the two countries, the opportunities for Transatlantic alliance-building, and the power of art to deepen and expand expressions of Blackness. Artists responded to the prompt, “when you think of contemporary Blackness, what do you see?”
“Our historical contexts are different, but the impacts of deep and violent anti-Blackness are all too alike,” said Cedric Brown. “Black Americans and South Africans stand to learn from and be motivated by each other, especially via the brilliant cultures that each have created, even in the face of suboptimal conditions. SHAPE is just one illustration of that richness.”
As the virtual exhibition gains traction in South Africa and the U.S., SHAPE hopes to drive a global media campaign urging Black people around the world to share their stories and art that sparks further conversation about global Blackness.
Visitors to the exhibition are already making important connections. “Such arresting and powerful images. What is so amazing is how these artists make clear how we are connected in the African diaspora,” one viewer said. “Thank you for this moving exhibit,” another viewer said. “It was just the reminder that my soul needed.”
The SHAPE team will further this conversation with artist talks scheduled for Thursday, 25th March. Visit the exhibition at www.shapeofblackness.com.
THE SHAPE OF BLACKNESS is supported by a grant for Atlantic Fellows for Racial Equity.