The Exhibition is in Transit - Art, Curating, Systems and Stuff: Black Performativity thriving, in spite of

Jade Foster, something to nothing to an utterance: a sermon of black performativity (2021). Text and digital image. Courtesy of the artist.

I am pleased to share a commissioned writing responding to ‘The Exhibition is in Transit’ for Ephemeral Care on fLoromancy, an Atlanta based platform. The piece of writing mentions/pays homage to the work of Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom, Aria Dean, Barby Asante, Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley, Jade Montserrat, and Martine Syms.

This text is an unfinished, notational offering: a gift of generosity within a period of scarcity, where black [read: not politically black] bodies are the subject of heightened political attention. In turn, there is currently an unsettling hyper-visibility, performative activism and allyship towards the support of black cultural production and cultural workers within the arts sector. This text purposefully contains unfinished, disjointed and sporadic notations and thoughts that have been oscillating in my head for years. Unfinished because I am struggling to function within crisis, constantly moving from house to house, struck with illness or feeling overwhelmed from how cultural organisations leech my labour, offering precarious and low paid salaries in return. I have kept all of this in mind when writing. 

My intended audience flows between academia, cultural gatekeepers, supposedly well-intended allies in the visual art sector, and black artists or curators (my community). I hope this text speaks to these people at various moments; and anyone interested in my musings.

Read more here.