This is Notes from MoAD: Emerging Artists and Critic Series, dedicated to the Museum of African Diaspora’s 2018-20 Emerging Artist Program. In this episode, photographer and visual artist Chanell Stone and curator/organizer PJ Gubatina Policarpio revisit "Natura Negra (Black Nature)," Stone’s exhibition at Museum of African Diaspora. Stone walks us through the various parts of the show and gives us the behind-the-image process for her compelling black-and-white self-portraits that anchor the exhibition. Additionally, Stone reflects on her family’s ties to the American South, their eventual move to Los Angeles, and how these intertwined landscapes and narratives influence her image-making.

Through the use of black-and-white analog photography, "Natura Negra" aims to expand the canon of traditional photography. Specificity is placed on urbanized African Americans living in dense cities and the disconnection from nature that often inherently follows this lifestyle. Stone analyzes the Black body’s presence within urban “forests” as an effort to reclaim and reconnect to nature itself, even within the confines of the man-made environment. Through a compilation of environmental portraits, Stone explores the notion of “holding space” within one’s environment and the nuances of compartmentalized nature. "Natura Negra" was presented at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco as part of the Emerging Artists Program, from December 4 through March 1, 2020.

Notes from MoAD: Episode 9 with Chanell Stone and PJ Gubatina Policarpio

For episode 8 of the Notes from MoAD series, visual artist DeShawn Dumas and curator Rhiannon Evans MacFadyen discuss the fragility and resilience of glass, the terrifying and meditative properties of art and shooting guns, and the qualities and limits of the art institution as community space. In conversation about the creation of his works, Dumas describes how the “performance” of creating the works embodied the navigation required to survive in this landscape. By creating abstract works, the artist shifts from the narrative of race in America to the visceral experiences of those most affected by the oppressive systems and violent tools of Colonialism.

DeShawn Dumas’s solo exhibition, "Against the End of History," presented painting, video, and the artist’s self-described ballistic monochromes in a multimedia installation that situates the sacred within the political. Dumas counters the assertion of liberal democracy as the final form of human government and defender of human dignity as established by American political scientist Francis Fukuyama in his 1989 essay “The End of History?”. Dumas deploys the visual languages of abstraction and minimalism to explore the psychic and historical afterlives of slavery, the increasing cultural predominance of militarized policing and the ecological catastrophe of climate change. Inhabiting the terrors of a past, not yet past, "Against the End of History" offered a space to contemplate the struggle for future(s) worth living. "DeShawn Dumas: Against the End of History" was presented at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco as part of the Emerging Artists Program September 4 through November 15, 2019.

Notes from MoAD: Episode 8 with DeShawn Dumas and Rhiannon Evans MacFadyen

This is Notes from MoAD: Emerging Artists and Critic Series, dedicated to the Museum of African Diaspora’s 2018-20 Emerging Artist Program. In this episode, visual artist Sydney Cain and curator/organizer PJ Gubatina Policarpio meditate on the vision and process that inspire Cain’s upcoming show "Refutations" at Museum of African Diaspora. Cain, a third-generation San Franciscan, talks about living and making art in the city, reclaiming its Black past, present, and future. 

"Refutations" is an ongoing body of work exploring ancestral memory and the power of Black myth. The project includes various multimedia series of artwork, publications, and exhibitions emerging from personal genealogy research alongside process documentation through photography and drawing. Through play between ephemerality and figurative representation, Cain teases resistance against erasure while also celebrating metamorphoses that occur in the voids of invisibility. The work is an exploration in the perimeters of both existing and not existing through imaginative landscapes. 

Due to the current world health crisis, the Museum of the African Diaspora is currently closed. They are closely monitoring the changing status of COVID-19 and taking the necessary steps to reduce the spread of the coronavirus disease. All exhibitions have been postponed until further notice including "Sydney Cain: Refutations." For all updates on openings, please visit www.moadsf.org or follow MoAD on social media @moadsf.

Notes from MoAD: Episode 11 with Sydney Cain and PJ Gubatina Policarpio

Welcome to Notes from MoAD: Emerging Artists and Critic Series, dedicated to the Museum of African Diaspora’s 2018-20 Emerging Artist Program. In this bonus episode, curator Rhiannon Evans MacFayden sits down with visual artists Rodney Ewing and Indira Allegra to discuss collaboration, community, and collective modes of creating and presenting work.

Notes from MoAD: Episode 7.5 with Rodney Ewing, Indira Allegra, and Rhiannon Evans MacFadyen

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