Black Angel
Darkness came into the world as it was told
In it we have got the most beautiful Angels
They are called the Black Angels
—Adewale Ajakanri, 2015
The »Afrofuturism« movement emerged as part of the general enthusiasm for technology and space travel after the Second World War. The Afro-American community developed its very own interpretation of the space age: the expanses of the galaxy as an escape from racism, marginalisation and debasement, the future as the utopia of a freer world. Since then, their visions have been articulated in films, literature, comics and music, as highlighted in the current Elbphilharmonie spotlight.
The exhibition presented here, featuring the works of contemporary artists, takes a visual approach to the topic of Afrofuturism. It is divided into the sequences »Myth-Science«, »Metamodernism« and »Metaverse«, and is accompanied by comic talks by the curator Dr Reynaldo Anderson. Read more about the background to the exhibition
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Meet the Curator
Reynaldo Anderson
Dr. Anderson is an associate professor of Africology and African American Studies at Temple University; executive director and co-founder of the Black Speculative Arts Movement; and co-editor of the books Afrofuturism 2.0: The Rise of Astro-Blackness and The Black Speculative Arts Movement: Black Futurity, Art+Design.
Myth-Science
Myth-Science is a quality of Black or African speculative agency used to expose or criticize the limitations and ironies of the ideas of the European enlightenment and other forms of Anti-Blackness.
Scroll to read a conversation between the curator and Rev. Andrew Rollins about Myth-Science.
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German translation
Der Afrofuturismus zeigt sich heute als die hohe Kultur eines transnationalen, panafrikanischen, humanistischen Astro-Schwarzseins.
Der heutige Afrofuturismus ist die bewusste Verortung afrikanischer Kultur und Aktivität in Zeit und Raum.
Die Ausstellung Black Angel of History: Myth-Science, Metamodernism and the Metaverse vertieft die visuelle Erkundung komplexer Narrative über die Schwarze oder afrikanische spekulative Einbildungskraft.
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Der Schwarze Engel der Geschichte zertrümmert das Raum-Zeit-Kontinuum und bricht durch kosmische Barrieren. Aus einer fernen Himmelswelt kam er mit einer Botschaft zu uns, so scharf wie ein Lichtschwert aus Leben und Tod.
Wir leben in einer Zeit des Umbruchs, voller Chaos, Trauma und Blutvergießen. In solchen Zeiten erscheint stets der Schwarze Engel der Geschichte als Berater und Schild.
Der Schwarze Engel der Geschichte ist ein übernatürliches Wesen, ein theologisch-philosophischer Vertreter von Metaphysik und Geopolitik mit der Mission, Schwarze Menschen zu schützen und zu führen.
Black Angel of History :by Stacey Robinson
Sun Ra: Mythscientist :by John Jennings
AstroSankofa :by Quentin VerCetty
How Long 'til Black Future Month? :by Paul Lewin
Cover art for N.K. Jemisin's collection of short stories, How Long 'til Black Future Month?
Unveiling Visions
The modern Black Speculative Arts Movement formally began in the fall of 2015 at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The historic Harlem library was ground zero for the groundbreaking, multimedia visual arts exhibition Unveiling Visions: The Alchemy of the Black Imagination. The show evolved the possibilities of the visual Afrofuturist genre.
Today, Afrofuturism is emerging as the high culture of a transnational, pan-African, humanistic Astro-Blackness. Contemporary Afrofuturism is the conscious location of African culture and agency in time and space. Within its creative scope are metaphysics, aesthetics, social science, theoretical and applied science, and programmatic spaces.
Venus Rising :by Greg Aimé
Wanted :by Karo Durojaiye
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»The angel has escaped. This photograph stands as the last evidence of the Angel’s existence. A moment frozen in time that forces us to face the past. In this piece, I capture the viewer's gaze by having the subject be the central focus. Wanted depicts a worn-out photo artifact of an otherworldly being before dissolving out of existence. The fourth wall is broken as viewers are lured in by the empty gaze of the Angel; it is as though they are staring at a real Wanted Poster from the past.«
—Karo Durojaiye
Conscience :by Zaika dos Santos
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»Conscience is a place of historical, social and cultural identification that connects the past, the present and transports us to the future to the ancestry of tomorrow. Through the iconographic/mathematical writing of the Tchokwe civilization, SONA is also the consciousness in Afro-Brazilian memory.«
—Zaika dos Santos
Kiana's Ascension :by Quentin VerCetty
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»Mixed media of digital sculpting, 3d composite rendering and scanned acrylic painted background. The art piece is a projected celebration of an African young woman as a monumental bust on a different planet. The young woman's story is a real one based in the 21st century wherein despite the hardship she had experienced as a Black woman in Toronto she ascended beyond her circumstances and focused on helping youth and young mothers in her community who have been struggling with drugs, poverty and people who may have had a criminal record or past.
Her ascension built numerous opportunities in her community for generations to come. Her wings are metaphorically constructed by the virtues she demonstrated while she was alive which is evident through the adinkra symbols that line up below it which speaks to her caring, giving heart, valor and resourcefulness.«
—Quentin VerCetty
Mother :by Karo Durojaiye
#BlackHistoryMatters :by Black Kirby
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A collaboration between John Jennings and Stacey Robinson.
Black Kirby deconstructs the work of artist Jack Kirby to reimagine Black resistance spaces inspired by Hip Hop, religion, the arts, and sciences.
Who ist the Black Angel?
The Black Angel of History exhibition continues the visual exploration of complex narratives on the Black or African speculative imagination in conversation with the previous Unveiling Visions exhibit. Now, the figure of the Black Angel functions as a messenger for Afro-Speculative making and interpreting of counternarratives of a cosmology and cosmogony that reimagines phenomena for African peoples worldwide. This reimaging is essential during the existential crisis of climate change, fascism, the global COVID-19 pandemic, collapse in biopolitics, and accelerating technological change.
Nyansapo :by Zaika dos Santos
»Nyansapo fell from her ship on an unknown planet, and in an attempt to return she undergoes an immersive search for her bodily, scientific, sound and technological consciousness. Nyansapo is the Adinkra of knowledge who only manages to return to her ship after mythically worshiping her orixás in Afro-Brazilian ancestry.«
—Zaika dos Santos
Metamodernism
Metamodernism- Describes the structure of what is emerging »after postmodernism;« it focuses on the new ideas and cultural practices growing in the wake of the vacuum of meaning, alienation, and exhaustion in contemporary societies.
Afropessimism is the belief by scholars Jared Sextion, Frank Wilderson and others, that asserts people of African descent live in an anti-black world and Black existence is characterized by social death.
Scroll to read a conversation between the curator, Dr. Candice M. Jenkins, and Dr. John Murillo III about Metamodernism.
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German translation
Die Figur des Schwarzen Engels dient als Sinnbild für die afro-spekulative Erschaffung und Deutung von Gegennarrativen zur Kosmologie und Kosmogonie, die Phänomene für afrikanische Völker weltweit neu konzipieren.
Diese Neukonzeption ist unerlässlich während der heutigen existenziellen Krise mit Klimawandel, Faschismus, globaler Covid-19-Pandemie und immer schnellerem Technologie-Wandel.
Afro-Futurismus und Afro-Pessimismus bieten konzeptuelle Heuristiken, mit denen Schwarze Menschen die Spannungen darstellen und erkunden können, die in der Zeit von „Black Lives Matter“ sichtbar wurden.
Wie Jenkins ausführt, sind Afro-Futurismus und Afro-Pessimismus beide stark spekulativ und teilen, wie sie es nennt...
...eine gewisse Radikalität, die dazu neigt, Welten aufzubauen, aber auch zu zerstören.
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METAMODERNE
Afropessimismus schärft die spekulative Linse des Afrofuturismus, fixiert sie. Afrofuturismus öffnet den Afropessimismus für die kreativen Möglichkeiten, die dessen Fokus auf Zerstörung bietet.
Gemeinsam liefern uns diese Konzepte die genauesten und kreativsten Analyse-Instrumente für das Verständnis, wie das Schwarze (Un-)Zeitgefühl im Zusammenhang mit der Unterwerfung Schwarzer Menschen in der anti-schwarzen Welt funktioniert...
...und welche Möglichkeiten sich uns bieten (oder auch nicht), wenn wir Zerstörung als kreatives Mittel für die mögliche (De)konstruktion von Worten nutzen wollen.
KINDRED: Dana with lost arm :by John Jennings
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Butler’s most celebrated, critically acclaimed work.
Adapted by celebrated academics and comic artists Damian Duffy and John Jennings, this graphic novel powerfully renders Butler’s mysterious and moving story.
Panel from the 2017 graphic novel adaptation of Octavia E. Butler's novel Kindred, originally published in 1979.
INFINITUM Quad Cover :by Tim Fielder
New cover for Harper Collins' INFINITUM: An Afrofuturist Tale by Tim Fielder.
Impossible Stories :by Black Kirby
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A collaboration between John Jennings and Stacey Robinson.
Black Kirby deconstructs the work of artist Jack Kirby to reimagine Black resistance spaces inspired by Hip Hop, religion, the arts, and sciences.
Brother Keep Your Head Up :by June Reddix-Stennis
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»Brother Keep Your Head Up envisions resistance to achieve American assimilation. He does not seek the acceptance of the masses, they do not love him. He refuses to reside in the white imagination, he will not drown in white thought or fright. His hair is a weapon of force, skin black, weathered, thick, and strong enough to penetrate the stratosphere as he travels back and forth between two worlds. His hair is it’s own autonomous creative reality and the masses gawk, envy, and some swoon. Keep your head up brother, I love you.«
—June Reddix-Stennis
»Call Yo Mama« (The Black Woman is God) :by Karen Seneferu
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A ten foot tall wooden replica of the continent of Africa, the mixed media assemblage — created by UC Berkeley alumna Karen Seneferu — combines various pieces of wood and and fabrics in its construction, and is attached to the end of a telephone line that emerges from a old-fashioned phone.
EARTH ANGEL in San Francisco :by Malik Seneferu
City on a Hill :by Karo Durojaiye
Greg Tate :by André Leroy Davis
UnAdjustedNowRaw :by Black Mau
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This is a collaboration between Stacey »Black Star« Robinson and Kamau »DJ KamauMau« Grantham and they are known as Black Mau.
Welcome To Our Healing Sanctuary Part 1 :by Safiya Eshe Gyasi
»A Black screen is the vessel that symbolizes the mind. The imagery scrolling up the screen represents memories, rapid thoughts, experiences, nightmares, dreams, and peace. About 8 million people have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder [PTSD] in a given year. Medical racism is so real. About 2.87 million Americans sustain a Traumatic Brain Injury [TBI] each year.
Who's talking about TBI & PTSD in the Black community? How many people in the Black community even know the signs and symptoms of TBI & PTSD? Better yet, how many people in the Black community know what healing through art looks like?
Join Two Black women as they share their experiences with TBI & PTSD, as they break down the walls of mental imprisonment, as they heal through art, and as they invite you to join their healing sanctuary.« —Safiya Eshe Gyasi
Metaverse
Metaverse- A dystopian reality first described in the novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson describing an enclosed integrated network of 3D virtual worlds presented as an alternative to human social interaction.
Scroll to read a conversation between the curator, Dr. C. Tsehloane Keto, and Prof. John Jennings about the Metaverse.
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German translation
Neal Stephensons Roman Snowcrash begründete das dystopische Konzept des Metaversums im Juni 1992.
Ein Jahr später, im August 1993, sagte C. Tsehloane Keto, die einzige Lösung sei ein globales Pluriversum, das unsere Neuerungen und einen nicht-hegemonialen Ansatz respektiert, der unsere Menschlichkeit mit einschließt.
Während Technologie-Konzerne sich bei der Realisierung dieser Dystopie überbieten, gibt der Schwarze Engel der Geschichte Antworten auf die künftigen Herausforderungen des Metaversums – mit dem Weltaufbau per Cyberfunk und dem pluriversalen Talent der astrospekulativen Design-Fantasie.
Der Schwarze Engel der Geschichte ist ein Botschafter, der die visuelle Kultur und Technologie im Genre des Afrofuturismus analysiert, um zu ermitteln, welche Macht Kreativität im Kampf für unterschiedliche Formen der Meinungsfreiheit und in der Politik des Widerstands und Siegs entfalten kann.
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Meine Vorstellung von Critical Race Design Studies bietet eine Antwort auf künftige techno-kulturelle Herausforderungen...
...eine interdisziplinäre Design-Praxis, die Critical Race Theory, Speculative Design, Design-Geschichte und Critical Making verknüpft, um die Wirkungen visueller Kommunikation, grafischer Objekte und der damit verbundenen, systemimmanenten Vermittlung von »racial identity« kritisch zu analysieren.
Der BOTSCHAFTER
Damian DUFFY Illustration & Design
Reynaldo ANDERSON
Konzepte & Text
Critical Race Design Studies :By John Jennings
According to John Jennings, critical race design studies is an interdisciplinary design practice that intersects critical race theory, speculative design, design history and critical making to analyze and critique the effects of visual communication, graphic objects, and their associated systemic mediations of racial identity.
John Jennings is Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California at Riverside (UCR), Jennings examines the visual culture of race in various media forms including film, illustrated fiction, and comics and graphic novels. He is also the director of Abrams ComicArts imprint Megascope, which publishes graphic novels focused on the experiences of people of color. His research interests include the visual culture of Hip Hop, Afrofuturism and politics, Visual Literacy, Horror, and the EthnoGothic, and Speculative Design and its applications to visual rhetoric.
Proposed adaptation of Samuel R. Delany's 1968 novel, NOVA
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German translation
Maus, ist dir klar, was dich auf dieser Reise erwartet?
Yeah.
Hast du keine Angst?
Ehrlich gesagt, ich hab voll Schiss! Ich bin nicht wie Dan.
Ich hab Angst.
Draco, Triton, Hölle3, 3172
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German translation
»Okay«, »Du bist Olga.«
Weißt du echt, wie man dieses Teil bedient?
Wenn dir das jetzt noch nicht klar ist...
Hier geht’s um Illyrion –
– Illyrion und eine Nova.
Hey, was machst du mit deinen Haustieren, Sebastian?“
Hab sie mit Milch gefüttert.
Mit Tranquilizern. Sie schlafen jetzt.
Alles klar?
Zieh die Seitenklappe sieben Grad auf.
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German translation
Ist das nicht toll?
Schau malFür Illyrion und Prince und Ruby Red!
Katin, guck –
Halt die Klappe fest!
Lehn dich zurück und spann ab, Maus... Das werde ich auch machen und an mein früheres Leben denken.
Fühlst du dich wirklich so, Katin?
»Alles kann langweilig sein, das ist reine Ansichtssache.«
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German translation
Aufpassen, ihr beiden,
Stasis-Schalter einschalten.
Tschüss, Mond
Write No History :by Black Quantam Futurism/Rasheedah Phillips
»Write No History is a short speculative triptych film featuring found and archival footage of The Temporal Disruptors, members of an ancient Secret Society of Black scientists, healers, and writers. Spread out across time in the relative past/present/future at one of their meeting lodges, the Hatfield House in Philadelphia, performing quantum time capsule burying and unearthing rituals to transport quantum time capsules containing tools, maps, clocks, and codes as technologies to hack colonized timelines.
Write No History is directed and produced by Black Quantum Futurism with filmmaker Bob Sweeney.
Featured Temporal Disruptors include: Dominique Matti, Iresha Picot, Marcelline Mandeng, Vernon Jordan III, Angel Edwards, Vitche-Boul Ra, Sheena Powell, Alex Farr, Camae Ayewa, Riot Dent, and Rodnie King.«
—Black Quantam Futurism/Rasheedah Phillips
Primavera :by Nettrice Gaskins
»Created using deep learning (Artificial Intelligence).« — Nettrice Gaskins
Metasphere :by Jessi Jumanji
Terminus II :by James Mason
The Glych :by Muniyra Douglas
I Stand Asleep :by Junior Tomlin
Dark Universe: The Bright Empire :by James Eugene
Cover art for Dark Universe: The Bright Empire, an anthology edited by Milton J. Davis and Eugene Peterson.
All Possible Future :by Alan Saint Clark
Atoms of an Evening Wing :by Quentin VerCetty
OutKast :by Stacey Robinson
The power of creativity and innovation
Through an analysis of visual culture and technology within the genre of Afrofuturism, The Black Angel of History examines the power that creativity and innovation wields in the struggle for various freedoms of expression and the politics of resistance and victory. The Black Angel of History's task is to shift the geography of reason to navigate the present Metamodern moment, engagement and tension between Afrofuturism and Afropessimism, social death and immortality, and respond to the future challenges of the Metaverse with the Cyberfunk worldbuilding and Pluriverse flair of the Astro-Black Speculative design imagination.
Angel of Sankofa :by Quentin VerCetty
Seriiyun, The Spirit of Buccoo Reef :by Meighan Morson
OPEN MIND :by Sunahtah Jones (Spice Cam Visuals)
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»OPEN MIND is the first of the UBCONSCIOUS GALAXY collection. This piece began as a black & white self-portrait, which Sunahtah then transformed through hotomanipulation and digital painting. The explosion of Sunahtah’s mind into parts of a galaxy symbolizes the depth, vastness, and complexity of the human mind and human thought. Within each of our minds exists a microcosm of worlds that inform both our imagination and navigation of the self. It is through the artistic examination of our humanity and deep subconscious that we wade in self-discovery and the connection to our higher selves.« —Sunahtah Jones (Spice Cam Visuals)
Gayngel at the Red Door of the Apocalypse :by Stacey Robinson
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»All will be judged. Our Blackness will be defined. We will no longer hide behind gender, and sexuality as an escape into class, at the expense of Blackness, and freedom. On those same intersectional crossroads of class, gender, sex, and race are overlayed injustice and inequities that converge with White Supremacy and racism. The Gayngel will judge those who turn the front lines of protest and the prison industrial complex into strip clubs where we hide behind docility and faux ideas progression at the expense of defining Black liberation, freedom, and nationhood. His flaming sword will determine our fate as you walk through his elongation to the other side the apocalypse (for some) where the fight to reconcile our generational traumas and exist in our Blackness will just begin. On what Sun Ra calls the 'other side of time'.« —Stacey Robinson
God Forbid :by Stacey Robinson
Prince of Knowledge :by Tokie-Rome Taylor
Earth Seed :by Stacey Robinson
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»There is a soon coming time where the Earth will unplug and do a hard reset. She won’t die but we will. It is unknown how many times the Earth has reset herself, but it will happen again soon. In the final countdown the EarthSeed will be deployed and hidden in time-space. The pod contains the regenerative elements needed to reboot human life on the new Earth. On the other side of injustice, White Supremacy, racism, and other global inequities. As the algorithm communes with the new Earth, she will retain her memories of her past occupants. But her patience may be much shorter as her coded language will become stronger, mature, and perfect on what Sun Ra calls the 'other side of time'.« —Stacey Robinson
Awakenings-We Were Always Here-Mission Sankofa Awakening :by Quentin VerCetty
Courtesy of Carnegie Hall and Google Arts and Culture. Supported by the Carnegie Hall Rose Archives.
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About the exhibition
This exhibition, curated by Reynaldo Anderson and the Black Speculative Arts Movement, builds upon an earlier exhibition at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture with influences from the essay The Black Angel of History and the Age of Necrocapitalism - Terremoto. Through an analysis of visual culture and technology within the genre of Afrofuturism, the Black Angel of History functions as an avatar for Afro-Speculative making and interpreting of counternarratives of a cosmology and cosmogony that re-imagines phenomena for African peoples worldwide and examines the power that creativity wields in the struggle for various freedoms of expression and the politics of resistance.
Showcasing illustrations, graphic design, video, literature, and mixed-media digital and analog artworks, this exhibit features emerging, mid-career and acclaimed artists, writers, performers, and designers.This online exhibition showcases works that were on display in Zankel Hall from February to June 2022, with additional selections curated specifically for the Google Arts and Culture platform. With support from the Carnegie Hall Rose Archives.
