This Unique Art Exhibit Is Using Technology To Highlight Black Life, Identity Across The Diaspora
"THIS LIFE: BLACK LIFE IN THE TIME OF NOW," WHICH AIMS TO ILLUMINATE DIVERSE FACETS OF BLACK LIFE GLOBALLY USING AUGMENTED AND VIRTUAL REALITY, OPENED DURING MIAMI ART WEEK.
A groundbreaking digital exhibition and documentary about Black identity debuted during Soul Basel and Miami Art Week via The Miami Museum of Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora (Miami MoCAAD).
“This Life: Black Life in the Time of Now” is described as an exhibit and overall experience that examines contemporary Black existence through creative lenses using augmented and virtual reality experiences. It weaves together the personal narratives of four visual artists to create an immersive experience meant to transcend geographical borders.
“To understand the complexities of Black life today is to grasp in many ways how the world operates. “Black Life” brings to the fore what the African-American thinker W. E. Du Bois once called a ‘second sight’ into this world,” said Anthony Bogues, Ph.D., Curator and inaugural Director of the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University, in a release shared with ESSENCE. “ Each of the artists presented in this documentary and virtual exhibition engages with the world in unique ways. Their art tells us something specific and yet common about the world we live in,” Bogues states.
This is an experience that aims to illuminate diverse facets of Black life globally. Bogues goes on to describe the unique ways in which the work of each of the four artists helps one understand the complexities, nuances, and varied experiences of Black people around the world.
“From Mark Gibson, we see the contours of American society and the current dangers we face; from Rénold Laurent, we understand the beauty and ways in which Haitian art is an oral language common to Haitian society. From Rosana Paulino we see how the anti-Black structures of Brazilian society are confronted both at the level of representation and Afro-Brazilian aesthetics, and from Nontsikelelo Mutiti, we are drawn into the ways in which art and hair weave a mosaic about Black female art forms. The richness of all these artistic practices makes Black life alive,” said Bogues.
“This Life” was made possible by funding from the John L. and James S. Knight Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Miami-Dade County. By using digital technology, it has brought artists from across the African Diaspora to Miami’s Overtown neighborhood for a local and global celebration of Black artists.
Through its integration of technology into exhibitions, programs, and practices, Miami MoCAAD Co-Founder, Marilyn Holifield says its goal is “to set the stage for a new era in the exploration of contemporary art from the Global African Diaspora and the mother continent, Africa.”
