Apr 2021
The grand reopening: our critics pick the best art shows for 2021
My upcoming group exhibition Untitled: art on the conditions of our time at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge is featured in the Guardian recently as one of the best art shows for 2021. A film still from my work As always a Painful Declaration of Independence: Intimacy and Distance, which was first shown in the Diaspora Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2017, is also featured in the article. Click here to read the full article.
Apr 2021
'We Will Walk': Black Art, Radical Transformation
I was invited to join an online discussion organised by Turner Contemporary called 'We Will Walk': Black Art, Radical Transformation in July 2020. The discussion, convened by legal expert and scholar Eddie Bruce-Jones, took the exhibition We Will Walk – Art and Resistance in the American South at Turner Contemporary as a starting point to discuss Black lives, Black futures and the role of creative vision in the long movement towards radical social transformation. Other panelists include Kojo Koram, Rabz Lansiquot, and Imani Robinson. See here for more information and the recording.
Mar 2021
7 minutes and 46 Seconds: Strategic Response and Contemporary Collecting
I had a conversation with Aaron Bryant, Curator of Photography, Visual Culture at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC as part of the Black History Year series at the University of Westminster. Aaron talked about the Black Lives Matter protests last year and its larger historical context and I reflected on some of my recent projects and explored what it means to develop an artistic practice that is moving towards imagining liberation. Watch the recording here.
Feb 2021
Watch the whole programme of Propositions #13: Mobilization and (In)Visibility
The online assembly and public forum Propositions #13: Mobilization and (In)Visibility that I took part in January is now available to watch. See here for more information and the recording of the event.
23 Jan 2021
Propositions #13: Mobilization and (In)Visibility
I’m contributing to Propositions #13: Mobilization and (In)Visibility, an online assembly and public forum, organised by BAK. The program engages the aesthetics, praxis, and theories of refusal, insurrection, organizing, and mediation during this pivotal political moment. Other contributors include Tony Cokes, Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh, Massimiliano (Mao) Mollona, Rachael Rakes, Irit Rogoff. See here for more information and registration.
Jan 2021
Radio Tenthaus, Norway Take Over
I was invited to do a take over for Radio Tenthaus, Norway on the 5th January 2021. The episode includes a selection of sound pieces made in collaboration with G-Marie for my installation at the 2017 Diaspora Pavilion, as well as a mixtape based on themes from my Declaration of Independence project, including tracks by Sweet Honey in the Rock, Nubya Garcia, H.E.R, Jah 9 and Candice Hoyes. See here for more information.
Jan 2021
Declaration of Independence Bergen Podcast Launch
As part of the live programme of the exhibition "SONW – Shadow of New Worlds" at Bergen Kunsthall, I brought the "Declaration of Independence" to Bergen in late 2019, working with womxn of colour based in Bergen, Oslo and Copenhagen, resulting in a performance in January 2020. This podcast series is a continuation of that project. Together with Foluke Taylor and some of the participants, we reflected on the process and the motivations, allowing for conversations to extend beyond the collected performance into the contexts. You can also listen to the podcast on Spotify.
Dec 2020
Declaration of Independence at Brent 2020
This new iteration of Declaration of Independence was commissioned by Brent Biennial 2020. 20 womxn of colour came together through online gatherings to create the collective Declaration of Independence. The final performance was live streamed on 12th Dec. The recording of the live event is available for watching till the end of March 2021.
Dec 2020
Act III – Coal After Audre
My video meditation Coal After Audre reflects on Lorde’s poem Coal from her 1968 First Cities collection and an Alexis Pauline Gumbs' quote from her 2020 book Dub: Finding Ceremony, which asks “How do you write a poem about coal?” This was commissioned for the Acts 2020 Stanley Picker Public Lecture Programme which considers what it means to stage an online event as a way to distribute artistic knowledge. You can find more information here.
Dec 2020
What I am Reading Now.....
What I am Reading Now… is the online iteration of a printed column, of the same name in Cooper Gallery’s occasional periodical & labels. I was invited to write the December's column which is dedicated to reading with my wonder co-conspirators Gail Lewis and Foluke Taylor. You can read this column here.
Nov - Dec 2020
One of my readings with Gail Lewis and Foluke Taylor has been M. NourbeSe Philip annual durational collective reading of NourbeSe’s extended poem Zong! which re-collects the story of the 130 enslaved Africans thrown overboard a slave ship in 1781. Using the words of the case report, this reading in echo, chant, moan, cries, shouts and hollers is held on the anniversary of the Zong massacre beginning November 30th 2020 and will run for 10 days. For this reading we were joined by Jessica Horn, Ronnie McGrath, Femi Oriogan-Williams, Vanessa Richards, Imani Robinson and Hakim Taylor.
Oct - Nov 2020
A Declaration of Independence online screening at LADA
The film documentation of the first iteration of A Declaration of Independence, which was performed in June 2018 at LADA was available for watching as a LADA online screening event. The work was performed by Selina Rose, Paula Pinho Martins Nacif, Chloe Filani, Marwa Belghazi, Buki Bayode, Foluke Taylor, and Aisha Mohammed.
Oct 2020
Black Togetherness with Gary Younge & Quinsy Gario
The 6th episode of the ongoing Diasporic Self: Black Togetherness as Lingua Franca series, a collaborative project initiated by Amsterdam based researcher and curator Amal Alhaag and Barby Asante. See here for more information.
Aug 2020
Black Togetherness: Carnival and Remembering our Diasporic Connections Through Our Moving
Barby Asante and friends present a collective reading of poet, writer and lawyer M. NourbeSe Philip's essay Caribana: African Roots & Continuities, Race Space and the Poetics of Moving. See here for more information.
July 2020
Artists Make Change: Conversations - Barby Asante and Languid Hands
As part of Artists Make Change conversations commissioned by a-n Artists Council, Barby Asante and Languid Hands (Rabz Lansiquot and Imani Robinson) talked radical action, covering a series of urgent topics and themes; representation and diversity, the ‘hyper-visibility’ of Blackness, curatorial obligation, time for deep thinking and reappraisal, community building and care, violence and carcerality – a commitment to Black Liberation, and Black quiet/Black interiority.