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Media: wood, clay, copper, oil, celluloid film, reclaimed human afro hair, human bodily fluids, antique bronze frames, linen, LED monitors, ash, handmade paper, and sequin fabric. Wall installation.
Hermafrodek (2015-2021)is a wall installation combining sculpture, video, digital painting, experimental sound, oral text, and imagery. The various media conjure up a pulsating visual and aural surface, in front of which the visitors may fall in a trance and become keenly aware of their otherness, as the protagonist of Franz Kafka's story The Cares of a Householder when suddenly confronted by the mysterious object Odradek. To put it otherwise, Hermafrodek is a giant experiment in human telekinesis. It is rooted in the vision and practice of Afrofuturism and digital Vodounism and is a commentary on our human and post-human identity, and on the future of race and sexuality. It is an Afrobaroque work, as it embraces the visual excesses of the Baroque and the rapidly emerging shape of a Futurafrique, as envisioned first and boldly by M. B. Tolson. Hermafrodek transforms experiences of linguistic, geographical and social displacement into a multi-layered narrative that recounts my own story of isolation and exile, while aspiring to be a meditation on the very act of storytelling. |
