The first 2023 edition of Microscope's emerging series YES with a screening of works by Miatta Kawinzi and Africanus Okokon.
The roughly 60-minute program of works by Kawinzi and Okokon address colonial histories and the African diaspora, from the looting of artifacts to the eradication of languages, as well as the sense of uprooting and fragmentation caused by forced displacement. The artists also share an interest in analog technologies such as 16mm film, cassette tapes, and synthesizers, as well as in the spoken or sung word, which is often altered or reprocessed to become part of their soundtracks.
For Kawinzi, the utilization of text and linguistics is central, expanding to and often taking hold of both the visual and sonic realms, as letters permeate the screen and words the soundtrack. For example, in “A(f)mrka,” two adjacent screens are filled with scattered letters that upon closer look form words, narratives, and questions such as “who afrka’d my amrka?,” and viceversa. Additionally, the audio track in this work is a re-edited vocalization by the artist that is inspired by the Liberian and the Black (American) National Anthems. The latest work on the program by Kawinzi is “SHE GATHER ME,” which the artist describes as presenting “alternative ways of considering place and the search for a space of belonging & refuge.” Shot on HD video and 16mm film, Kawinzi’s stunning imagery, which is interrupted by brief moments of blackness, is intensified by the sounds of a Black American folk song originally sung by workers and re-interpreted by Kawinzi.
Okokon, in his works, often lets the video or celluloid footage he appropriates and re-elaborates, speak for itself through juxtapositions exposing the beliefs and ramifications of colonialism, from a historical point of view to the present day. In “Venice,” an upbeat TV commentary describing Venetian gondolas stands in stark contrast with footage of canoes — often operated by young boys — in Makoko, Nigeria, an informal settlement in the city of Lagos referred to as the “Venice of Africa.” At the start of Okokon’s 16mm film performance “.srt” a text-to-speech voiceover announces that the story we are about to hear “is subtitled so you might be able to understand it.” As the computerized voice narrates, imagery from educational films, as well as YouTube clips and the artist’s own home movies, alternate on screen to a live soundtrack. In the two-channel work “Give the Picture,” mesmerizing sequences of painted, scratched, bleached, and silkscreened film offer condensed and meticulously assembled views from Nigeria, Ghana and the United States as represented mostly in movie and television reels. At the end, a subtitle emerges from the left screen: “All of you have seen!”
Miatta Kawinzi and Africanus Okokon will be available for a Q&A following the screening.
In-person address: 525 West 29th Street, 2nd Floor New York, NY 10001
ADVANCE TICKETS LINK: https://tinyurl.com/2s3zd5mn
General Admission $9 Member Admission $7
More info: https://microscopegallery.com/yes-miatta-kawinzi-africanus-okokon/