Fortune Tellers
Sandra Brewster - Torkwase Dyson - Kimberly Mayhorn - Jasmine Murrell - Marisa Swangha -
Simone Leigh - Adjua Williams
Organized by Kimberly Mayhorn
on view: September 13 to October 18, 2009
Opening reception: Saturday, September 19, 5-8pm
Artist Talk: Sunday, September 20, 3-5pm
FiveMyles has invited visual artist Kimberly Mayhorn to organize an exhibition based on a question she has asked herself: Are artists the fortune-tellers in their societies? The six artists Mayhorn has invited to exhibit with her at FiveMyles use the principles of Fortune Telling as their muse: they have examined sacred languages and mysteries to gain insight into questions and situations that may seem disjointed or without clarity.
Several of the artists dissect ancient methodologies in relation to African-American culture. Torkwase Dyson’s animations deal with her concept of The Black Eco Imagination. For her this means her involvement as an artist with the future and the history of black ecological innovation through technological and creative eco intelligence. In her installation of a ghetto in a bottle, Jasmine Murrelluses empty liquor bottles as her crystal ball through which to understand the present. Adjua Williams uses wood panels adorned with acrylic painted beaded ropes to explore the mysteries of thoughts from past to future. Simone Leigh evokes both the concerns of feminist production as well as the 1970s Pan-Africanist and outer-space themed gestures of Afro-Futurism. Using graphite, terracotta and TV antennae, Leigh references historical iconography linked to processes of identity-formation. Planet earth becomes Kimberly Mayhorn’s canvas by incorporating an anchor, rope, 12lb. weight, clocks, and religious texts to create a mixed-media environment of a paradise lost as the constant struggle for supremacy between religious texts and the powers of evil prevail throughout the world. As a prophesier, the Canadian artist Marisa Swangha hints at unspoken words tightly bound, by incorporating miniscule books into the seven three-dimensional paintings of a polytych. Her fellow Canadian Sandra Brewster, through her visual narratives, brings to life the story of her friend who answered a call from the ancestors to practice Sangoma, a traditional healer in the Zulu, Swazi, Xhosa and Ndebele traditions in Southern Africa.
Karma Mayet Johnson will present an Earth-based Mysticism and Black Lesbian Herstory evening performance accompanying song-cycle, rooted in the Delta: “Thunderbook: Readings from the Indigo Manuscripts.” The performance takes place on Friday, October 2 at 7:30 pm.
Kimberly Mayhorn graduated from Howard University in 1991. She received a Whitney Museum Independent Study Fellowship in 1999 and a Bronx Museum art residency in 1998. She has recently been nominated for a daytime Emmy for editing.
DIRECTIONS:
Take 2, 3, or 4 trains to Franklin Avenue. Walk two blocks against the traffic on Franklin. Walk ¾ block to 558 St. Johns Place. FiveMyles is within easy walking distance from the Brooklyn Museum.