Flux | Crafting Black Imagination
Flux | Crafting Black Imagination is a collection of research, interviews, and stories of lived experiences about deconstructing limiting beliefs, scarcity mindsets and intergenerational tensions that arise in transitions from lack to abundance. Often, we pursue liberation with respect to the institutions designed to constrain it. Flux, contrarily, explores our reaction as Black people to those structures - examining how we maneuver the professions we choose to pursue, the sacrifices we make, and the socializations we form to create our chosen lived experience. It explores questions including, "What could we be without scarcity and trauma?" "Who are we, as Black people, without boundaries?" "How do we visualize and express our greatest potential - not because of white supremacy but in spite of it?”
PROBLEM ANALYSIS
There are multiple issues that organizing an exhibition like SHAPE seeks to address; not all are defined as "problems." Racism and anti-Blackness are the central problems; the following are opportunities:
Dedicated space: It is no secret in the visual arts world that artists of African descent have been historically undervalued and overlooked by traditional "high art" institutions such as galleries, museums, and private collectors. SHAPE creates a forum specifically for our own self-definition through our own self-expression, where WE are the priority.
Visibility in new modes: The migration to virtual platforms, necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, emphasized how conversations need not end because we can’t be physically present for them. Instead, we can capitalize on the promise of digital spaces to bring us closer together. The COVID crisis has pushed the world, like it or not, further into virtual spaces when seeking communications channels. Artists and curators have quickly flocked to virtual exhibitions and digital content, as necessitated by the pandemic, in order to continue engaging with the community.
Current events: When this idea was originally conceived back in late April, we had not yet witnessed the latest round of police and vigilante violence exacted on Black lives. These tragedies kicked off a wave of protest activism in the United States perhaps unseen since the late 1960s, with growing global support. This has in turn reinvigorated the public outcry and movement to address the deep strains of anti-Blackness that have infected US culture since its founding. This larger social and political climate enables SHAPE to make a relevant and timely contribution to the discourse.
SHAPE is a timely opportunity to foster what should be hugely compelling statements: what does Blackness mean in these perilous times? What statements do artists want to make about racial identity and justice in the midst of a pandemic, a revived racial justice movement, and a global recession, all of which have laid bare deep societal inequities? Who are we and where are we heading?
Impact
THE SHAPE OF BLACKNESS will be a virtual art exhibition and related programming that highlights expressions of contemporary Blackness as envisioned by U.S. and South African artists. In choosing these two nations, we seek perspectives from the global north and south, Black majority and Black minority nations. SHAPE is inspired by the Rorschact inkblot, which even in its most mundane form, is a useful framing device for a group show. It conveys both symmetry and individual interpretation of an entire picture: "when you look at contemporary Blackness, what do you see?"
SHAPE will contribute to a continuing conversation through visual arts about evolving Black identities, akin to an artistic “state of the race” showcase. Sure, there are other such conversations, but there can never be too many as long as art and culture are dominated by white paradigms. SHAPE could become an annual or biennial exhibition, depending on this pilot run.
SHAPE also provides an inaugural opportunity for me to co-curate a global show while working in partnership with established art institutions.
It is difficult to gauge the impact of an art show over time; it is as good as the work and any accompanying buzz will allow it to be. Hence, the potential impacts will be measured through the lenses of artists' interest, public interest, and media interest. Ultimately, I want SHAPE to influence participants' reflections--artists and attendees alike--on what Blackness means today. Additionally, my great hope is that affiliation with this project can serve the participating artists in some positive manner.
