THAT WHICH WE WERE GIVEN
May 6 to July 1, 2023
This group exhibition explores the politics of Black place-making and somatic and semiotic expression within a visual context and offers reflections about the use and limitations of contemporary resources in such an endeavor; From vernacular photography archives to verbal and visual materials and archiving methodologies to personal gestures and collective lenses. Displacement through generations of migration implies more than just dispersal and reveals a paradoxical emotional state of both displacement and attachment. This exhibition makes use of visual histories to explore the ongoing processes of displacement and dispossession so prevalent among Black communities, visualizing what is often a precarious and tenuous relationship with place – both “back home” and the lands on which one re-makes home. Consequently, the works on display explore the self as the place of belonging and examination, attempting to rethink and understand cultural modalities through the visual memories of Blackness.
