Black Magic & Afrofuturism From The Diaspora Take Center Stage In Brooklyn Exhibition
'Black Magic: AfroPasts/AfroFutures' is on view at Corridor Gallery in Brooklyn.
Sandy is the curator of Brooklyn's newest spotlight on magical realism and afrofuturism in the Black Diaspora. The multi-disciplinary group show, a curatorial debut for Sandy, features photography, video installations, paintings and collages that explore “magical blackness" through the past and future of the Black Diaspora.
“The show looks at this idea of magical realism as well as afrofuturism combined across the Black diaspora," the curator tells Okayafrica. “What are the things that connect us? What is the iconography that connects us? And how does that look visually? What does that sound like? What does that feel like?"
The exhibition also marks a debut for our own Okayafrica family, Underdog. The DC-based DJ and graphic artist is showcasing his art in the flesh for the very first time.
Also taking part in the show is Atlanta-based painter and photographer Arnold Butler, Brooklyn-based photographer Delphine Fawundu, Haitian-American painter Charles Jean-Pierre, poet and performance artist Roger Bonair-Agard, Haitian-born mixed media artist Soraya Jean Louis-McElroy and ODDKinCREATE.Black Magic: AfroPasts/AfroFutures is on view at Corridor Gallery (334 Grand Street, Brooklyn, NY) now through May 22, 2016. Find out more details on the exhibition here and read Sandy's full curatorial statement below:
Magical realism is not merely a literary genre, but instead a very real actuality for we – the black and brown people of this earth. We smuggle the spiritual into every waking moment just as Afro-Futurism smuggles the intellectual and the axé (after Paul Carter Harrison and Sandra Jackson-Dumont) – the beauty and the power of our multitudinous voices – into the every day. Imagine scenes of lush color flooded by the light of the sun – in Bridgetown, in Brooklyn, in Brixton, in Bamako. Intersections of the past, present and future grounded in the magic that was already in the soil, in the air, passed on by our ancestors through breath, bonds, blood, ritual well after we came across the Atlantic all of these many times. We carry it with us wheresoever we go - this abundant color, rhythm, swagger, this ambulatory cosmology. Who and what we are now is a combination of Ley lines and the mixtures of all the noises and the gods we carry in our blood from the Americas, West Africa and India and whatever other watersheds we came from. Because of this, we see and hear magic in everything across water, space and time. Through the work of selected visual artists, Black Magic: AfroPasts/AfroFutures explores magical blackness through the lens of days gone by and imaginings of what is yet to come across the Diaspora.
- Spotlight: Artist, Ngadi Smart, Captures Black Sensuality, Sexuality ... ›
- 100 Women: Malin Fezehai Is the Renowned Photographer Helping ... ›
- These Photographers From Africa and Its Diaspora Expose the ... ›
- Black Social Photography in South Africa: Before & After - OkayAfrica ›
- Anunaka's South African Photos Confront the Fear of Freedom ... ›
- South African Artist Mohau Modisakeng Makes Solo NYC Debut With 'A Promised Land' - Okayplayer ›
- Photos: A Look Back At Ms. Lauryn Hill's 'Diaspora Calling!' Music Festival - OkayAfrica ›
Koyo Kouoh Leads a Historic Shift in Art and Curation
Koyo Kouoh, Lesley Lokko, Rujeko Hockleyd and Aindrea Emelife are redefining global art, bringing African women's voices to the forefront.
Amidst an Economic Crisis, is Detty December Going to be Different This Year?
The state of the economy in popular end-of-year celebration locations like Ghana and Nigeria has affected the scale of events, pushing people to focus on smaller, more intimate gatherings.