J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Adama Delphine Fawundu and Max Fields
Listen to the Audio recording
(Due to technical difficulties on this date, we were able to obtain the audio which is hosted on Internet Archive.)
Episode #11 Summary:
Thirty-one African artists illuminate the forces of overlooked social histories, reclaiming notions of Blackness and centering the true narrative of Africa’s global intellectual, creative and spiritual power.
Episode Notes
Curator Mark Sealy responds to the single question “What is the work the work is doing?” by creating a visual jazz redressing the cultural influences of the ubiquitous Western gaze. Compelling visual narratives, address the salient truths of African historical and cultural identity. By highlighting the plurality of experiences and the fluidity of perspectives, ambiguity is embraced, and absolutes are shattered, creating a new lexicon.
In this book group, Co-Editor Max Fields and multimedia artist Adama Delphine Fawundu discuss, among other things:
African cultural erasure
Spirituality of praxis
Exposing and expelling the injustices of the colonised camera
Multimedia projects intersecting personal, social, economic, and historical experience
Righting the reality of the narrative by redressing the balance of preconception and perspective
The power of images to reinforce or challenge preconceptions and prejudice
The social consequences of aesthetic practice
Resources:
FotoFest Biennial 2020 GuideBook
Decolonizing the Camera by Mark Sealy
African Cosmologies Spotify Playlist
Both Directions At Once: The Lost Album by John Coltrane
Photography's Other Histories by Christopher Pinney & Nicholas Petersen
MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora
Manufacturing Consent by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky
America’s Plastic Hour is Upon Us
Listen to the Audio recording
(Due to technical difficulties on this date, we were able to obtain the audio which is hosted on Internet Archive.)
Due to some technical difficulties, a video is not available for this book group.
Fortunately, we were able to recover the audio.