FOREVER WAS NEVER TILL NOW ( 2022)
Kala Group Exhibition
"The Shimmer of Midnight" (2022) is a five channel video art Installation which simulates sleeping, dreaming, the fifth dimension, and the facets in which we perceive our "reality". This happens while the "All-Seer" Sunmoluwa, a cosmic Yoruba "Iyami Aje", dances and creates a new Black universe, while perceiving and influencing the dreams and actions of two Black earth bodies - one masculine presenting, and one feminine presenting, from a much higher dimension. One soul, split into two earth bodies, existing in the 3rd dimension.
"For me this work investigates the curiosity that is consciousness, the mystery of where our minds depart to when we sleep, and the importance of re-claiming one's inner life and ancestry, worldly and otherwise."
Materials : Three 32in Flat screen TVs, matte black acrylic wall paint, Two 13in CRTs, one queen-sized bed, two pillows, one comforter, sheets and linen. Two head phone decks for audio.
Triptych video on (3) 32in Flat screen TVs: HD animation video, B&W, 2:02 min, looping. Diptych Video on (2) 13in CRTs: HD video with Color, stereo sound, 10:17 min, looping.
"The Artists in "Forever Was Never Till Now" expand the idea of lines in many different ways – communication, connections, separation, displacement, linkage, thresholds, interconnectedness, exchange, and ambiguity and fragility of something concrete. In this exhibition artists explore the power of ritual, craft, repetition, and translation that help us connect, support, and remember our heritage." - Mayumi Hamanaka
CREDITS
Performance : Jasmine Rutledge , Jamal Ademola
Curator / Artistic Director : Mayumi Hamanaka
Gallery : Kala Art Gallery, Berkeley, California.
Artists : Esy Casey , Ting Ying Han , Ai Iwane , Alisa Ochoa, Mariana Ramos Ortiz , Ron Moultrie Saunders , Cherrie Yu, Lena Wolff , and Jamal Ademola.
Special Thanks :
Jasmine Rutledge
Taro Hattori
Josh Coolidge
Trokon V Hill
Meg Pohlod
Jalil & Issan
Ellen Lake, Executive Director & Co-Director, Kala Art Institute
Malidoma Patrice Some, A teacher and guide, forever grateful, rest in peace.
Bamidele Agbasegbe Demerson, Chief Curator - African American Museum and Library at Oakland
