Ja’Tovia Gary’s Films Merge History, Race, and Personal Mark-Making

Ja’Tovia Gary, an artist from Brooklyn and a founding member of the New Negress Film Society, produces films that merge historical and modern racial violence with her unique hand-scratched animations. Her six-minute film 'An Ecstatic Experience' (2015) features a reenactment of a 1937 slave narrative by Ruby Dee from 1965, along with footage from the protests in Ferguson (2014) and Baltimore (2015), as well as church services. The film presents ecstasy as both a source of liberation and violence, highlighting the cyclical nature of history. In 'Giverny I (Négresse Impériale)' (2017), Gary captures her own black female form in Monet's garden, contrasting it with archival footage of Monet and scenes from police shootings, all set to Louis Armstrong’s 'La Vie En Rose'. Her animations, scratched directly onto celluloid, create scars resembling halos, prison bars, or psychic remnants. Currently, she is developing a new film titled 'The Evidence of Things Not Seen'. Her work is part of the exhibition 'God Made My Face: A Collective Portrait of James Baldwin' at David Zwirner, New York, until 16 February. Additionally, she will hold a solo exhibition at Galerie Frank Elbaz, Paris, from 2 February to 20 April 2019.