Reflections from (Returning to) Black Frequencies by MAIA Fellows Pt.1

We formed our Radical Imagination Lab exploring: How frequencies invite us to move, shapeshift and restore connections with our ancestral and future kin. Our Fellows at MAIA, artists Daniel and Adéọlá, curated the Lab which explored a range of cultural focal points.

From returning to pirate radio and exploring carnival as a site for liberation, to DIY sound system building, mask-making, reading circles, and invitations to dance and heal.

Across the Lab we explored frequencies as portals to liberation and both Daniel and Adéọlá have reflected on their experience curating and facilitating this lab.

Adéọlá’s Reflections:

How do we remember what we forgot to remember?
Dance like Douen

In attempting to recollect the process, the words, thoughts and motivations that led to this artwork, I remember my starting point as a seed.

Literally — on hearing about ABUELOS, I wanted through this fellowship, to gift something that could grow. I was thinking about trees as connections to ritual/spirit, nature/our “more-than-human accountabilities” and all life — what would it mean to nurture something and watch it grow. What would in mean to see, and make, and appreciate space as organism? I imagined a tree bearing fruit — perhaps mangoes (everyone loves mangoes) or a tree indigenous to this land. What would those choices mean? Deeply excited and inspired by the work of MAIA and the vision of ABUELOS, I felt hope for the next generation, for my boys. I also felt some uncertainty around what I could offer to a movement that seemed to already have all that it needed to blossom into what it will be.

Initially my thinking was around a piece of work that could in some way be a part of ABUELOS, something that spoke to MAIA’s ethos. As time progressed, I began to feel slightly overwhelmed, a feeling that the ideas and concepts I was focused on, around ABUELOS were gargantuan. I was struggling to hold on to a thing, from which I could then begin to make work. I began thinking about my practice and what being a part of this fellowship could mean — how could this unique experience inform the work that I do? How could this experience challenge or help me re-look at some of my thinking or ways of working?

One of the core experiences for me, was meeting the team. I saw brilliant bright women holding social justice, revolution, art, community and hope in perfect balance. I thought of care and good health for their journey — I thought again of rituals. In looking at my practice I began to play with masquerade as a concept. Masquerade for me, embracing an amalgamation of pasts, presents and futures through layering, colours, dressing, masking.

I continued thinking about the everyday of rituals. Rituals as key to enabling ways of functioning well. I imagined making costumes perhaps in collaboration with the community and hosting an event where costumes will be worn with music and dancing. I imagined the performers and community members being photographed. I have in the past done projects like this. In the past iterations the images were printed and displayed on billboards or on large windows of disused buildings. Here, I imagined the images could be printed onto slate tiles that could then be included in the tangible visual aesthetics of the building.

Daniel and I were soon to be dreaming the Lab. It made sense to have a performance event as part of the Lab. For this particular idea to take shape, I would have required much more time after the Lab to edit the images and produce printed tiles. I would have had to carefully plan what costumes would be made, what the costumes meant and how much community
input would be required. Time and distance also played a role in not fully pursuing that idea, as well as a desire to do something a bit different to what I had done previously. The Lab evolved to include elements of the performance activity as a silent disco. The other Lab events were like stepping stones to understanding masking as philosophy and practice.

I see my art as broadly occupying two zones: my save-the-world art and my selfish art. The former is usually funded and in collaboration with other artists — performance art, installation, photography; the latter is usually where my painting and mark-making become a language to express and engage emotions and experiences that struggle to be articulated through other mediums.

In looking at masquerade and costume (seven aprons), my sketches moved from the making of panels for a skirt into a single painting. As an offering, the masquerade was looking at themes and colours based on personal interpretations and impressions:

clarity/water/white,
abundance/fruit/purple,
enhancement/salt/blue,
beauty/flowers/green,
prosperity/money/yellow,
sweetness/honey/orange,
honesty/alcohol/red.

These resonated with chakras and very loosely with some deities:

Crown (I understand), white [Obatala]
Third Eye (I see), purple [Orunmila]
Throat (I speak), blue [Yemonja]
Heart (I love), green [Ogun]
Solar plexus (I do), yellow [Ochosi]
Sacral (I feel), orange [Osun]
Root (I am), red [Sango]

The process of making art is like an impulse, it draws you into a conversation that navigates subconscious and conscious spaces. In the subconscious spaces you are immersed in flow. In conscious spaces we make decisions about line or colour, adding something here or
removing that from there. The process is personal. Outside of the conversation the space becomes one of nakedness, vulnerability and criticism. It is the space of demasking (if the painting/artwork itself were a masked subject) — a space that shows you yourself in all your unique fragments.

The artwork is large-scale and made up of 7 figures interlocking arms. Each figure is in one of the colours associated with the chakras. The medium consists of paint, fabric and drawing on linen. The work is something to do with chakras, something to do with ancestry, something to with community and womanhood, something to do with dreams, cycles, patterns and ritual. Here, I embraced an opportunity to connect again with an aspect of my practice within which I had grown insecure. The fellowship facilitated steps to engage thoughts on masquerade and ritual through symbolism and mark-making. What comes out of this piece is both the intentional and the in-between. What I mean by that is, although I played with deliberate concepts in terms of shapes and colours and approaches or techniques, there are also things that may have occurred and may eventually be revealed to me within the juxtaposition of the colour, shape and pattern — through observations by other people.

The Fellowship opportunity was one that allowed for connection to MAIA’s Art School, Lab and other events. Meeting new people from the Birmingham creative community and beyond, getting to know Daniel and being involved in stimulating conversations contributed to an
enriching creative process. I felt supported and I am excited to see what will grow from this experience.

Does this artwork right the wrongs of the world? Not likely. Is it activism? Nope. Liberation? I don’t think so. In relation to ABUELOS my hope is that piece invites conversation, tells a story, offers a reminder and marks a moment in time when a Trinbagonian artist living in Wales had the honour of working in close relation with the manifesting dreams of MAIA. The gift of a seed of a mango tree, is my promise to ABUELOS for the future.

You can read more about Adéọlá and her work here.

Or follow her on Instagram.

To watch the available recordings of the (Returning to) Black Frequencies Lab please click here.