As a person of African descent who is not of US ancestry, I view life in my new country as an “embedded” observer. This perspective is particularly relevant when reflecting on discussions about race, historical trauma, and the current realities faced by Black individuals in America.
Much of my experience in the US, although consistently impacted by overt prejudice and unconscious biases, still feels like that of an outsider. While I deeply resonate with the pain of US history, I cannot claim that cultural trauma as my own, as it has not shaped my existence in the same way.
While traveling through South Carolina and Georgia, I aimed to understand and appreciate their history as the two states with the highest number of slave holdings.
Accepting the emotions contained by these hallowed spaces, while attempting to exist in the same temporal and geographic planes of those bygone days, feeling the scents of the humid salty air and sensing the fecund force of the dark soil, and the oppressive weight of the dark vegetation.
In the installation “Triangle,” I aim to explore the overlooked myths of the US Maroons. These were Africans who escaped from their plantations.captors, running into snake and alligator infested mud bogs, swamps, and other remote inhospitable spaces to claim their freedom, dreaming of being released back to “Congo”1.
While in the lowlands of South Carolina and Georgia, surrounded by the scents and physical tensions of antebellum America, I began conceptualizing this project.
In this piece, I aim to gather imagery, words, sounds, and sensory objects to reflect this reality within a single physical interval.
I want to chronicle the historical threads and the “library of painful facts” that is currently being denigrated and disparaged by our socio-political establishment. These stories are slowly fading into obscurity due to neglect and active efforts to erase them. This process of active forgetting is a result of the collective guilt felt by the dominant majority and the unconscious erasure that stems from the shame experienced by the subjugated minority.
I aim to establish a connection between the natural and organic sounds that have pervaded the southern past and present, and the fear of violence that continues to shape the Black experience in the United States. I propose to achieve this by creating a physical chamber that seeks to recreate this state of mind. This chamber will include visual representations of both the physical and mental spaces, highlighting the overwhelming vegetation and oppressive humidity.
My goal is to intertwine “now time” with “all times,” using words from those who have lived in this area, both past and present, as well as songs and sounds that embody and reflect this environment. Together, these elements will capture the beauty and the terror of the experience as one cohesive narrative.
This visual landscape would be further enhanced by intertwining the mechanical and industrial sounds and images of its current state. This would create a connection between the contemporary economic and industrial strength of the country and its original sin.
As I drove through the low country, surrounded by old cotton plantations and tobacco fields while ensconced in the cool comfort of air conditioning, I couldn’t help but wonder, “How could anyone even consider running away in the face of such overwhelming circumstances? The sun rises in the wrong direction, casting its light on an ocean that reflects unfamiliar stars. The plants and fruits here bear no resemblance to what these frightened people were used to. How does one even know where to go?” All I could think of was that the terror they were fleeing must have been even worse than those abstract fears.
