Primordial Emanations, that which is brought forth follows the womb: a surrender to her luminous blackness
August 27 – October 31 2020
A shared exhibition at 1708 Gallery curated by Mahari Kathleen Chabwera, featuring work by Adewale Alli, Hampton Boyer, Mahari Kathleen Chabwera, Asa Jackson, Julianna Sidiqqi, and Nastassja E. Swift
Primordial Emanations, that which is brought forth follows the womb, a surrender to her luminous blackness emerged from a planned solo exhibition of new paintings and a ritual performance by Chabwera. As Chabwera’s work is continually tracing black and moving forward in a journey of healing, self-revelation, respect and reparations she, with 1708, decided to welcome the power of many with a project that demonstrates blackness as the luminously mutable gift it is. In this shared exhibition, an entrance portal opened to a selection of recent paintings and sculptures by artists who are co-conspiring towards collective well-being, self-actualization, and self-fertilization. Woven into the Contemporary Arts Network web, 5 of the artists exhibiting are participants in the CAN's First Patron artist residency. Stationed in Newport News, VA, the CAN is a nexus of interconnectivity and development for a strong and harmonious arts community within the global art market.
Primordial Emanations acts as both a Blacktism: a portal black through the beginning of us, and an initiation into the awareness that our inner reality creates our outer experience. This exhibition simulates a reentrance into the elemental womb, we left the placenta too soon.