Kapwani Kiwanga's Flashbacks: Art, Surveillance, and Colonial Histories
Kapwani Kiwanga, an intellectual artist born in Hamilton, Canada, in 1978, draws upon historical, scientific, and theoretical research from her education at McGill University. Her 2019 series, Glow, features large black columns influenced by Simone Browne's Dark Matters, which addresses the colonial Lantern Laws established on March 14, 1713. Kiwanga's work was displayed in her solo show 'Safe Passage' at the MIT List Visual Arts Center. In May 2021, she engaged in a dialogue with Zahia Rahmani at Crédac for the exhibition 'Cima Cima', where they examined themes of colonialism and slavery, including her piece 'Repository' (2020). Additionally, her earlier projects, Flowers for Africa and the fictional documentary Sun Ra Repatriation Project (2009), delve into Black subjectivity.
Key facts
- Kapwani Kiwanga was born in Hamilton, Canada in 1978.
- She studied anthropology and comparative religion at McGill University in Montreal.
- Kiwanga's Glow series (2019) was inspired by Simone Browne's book Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness.
- Lantern Laws in colonial New York City were enacted on 14 March 1713.
- Glow sculptures were presented in 'Safe Passage' at MIT List Visual Arts Center.
- Kiwanga's exhibition 'Cima Cima' at Crédac in Ivry, France, took place in May 2021.
- The work 'Repository' (2020) was created with textile artist John Paul Morabito.
- Kiwanga's AFROGALACTICA series imagines the United States of Africa in 2058.
Entities
Artists
- Kapwani Kiwanga
- Adrian Piper
- John Paul Morabito
- Sun Ra
- Harriet Tubman
- Christopher Columbus
- Aimé Césaire
- Pier Paolo Pasolini
- Donald Judd
- Simone Browne
- Assata Shakur
- Hortense Spillers
- Jacques Rancière
- Zahia Rahmani
- Judith Carney
- André Vaillant
- Yesomi Umolu
- Carolin Köchling
- Tyrone S. Palmer
Institutions
- McGill University
- The Power Plant
- MIT List Visual Arts Center
- Crédac, Contemporary Art Centre of Ivry
- Afterall
- Afterall Journal
- University of Chicago Press
- Museum of Modern Art
- Duke University Press
- Lawrence Hill Books
- Zed Books
- Wesleyan University Press
- Waitawhile
- University of California Press
- AOC media
- Human Ecology
- Cultural Studies
- Souls
- African American Review
- Revue internationale de botanique appliquée et d'agriculture tropicale
- Slavery and Abolition
Locations
- Hamilton
- Canada
- Montreal
- Toronto
- New York City
- Cambridge
- MA
- Ivry
- Paris
- France
- Suriname
- Guyana
- Brazil
- Amazonia
- El Salvador
- United States
- South Carolina
- Cayenne
- Africa
- South Africa
- Europe
- Ancient Egypt
Sources
- Afterall —