Exhibition Summary: TBWIG
“The Black Woman Is God” (TBWIG) is the largest group exhibition of multi-media work by black women artists in the country. Spearheaded by Karen Senefuru and co-curated by black women, it is an annual exhibition held in San Francisco and Oakland. The exhibition programming is immersed in ritual-it is a distinctly visual and spiritual experience, where in audiences can recognize an alternative to Western cultural narratives that challenge Eurocentric notions of God
Autumn Ground: So That Wildflowers May Come Up Where You Are
Summary:
The figure in this piece personifies the potent metaphor of flowers growing through cracks in rocks/concrete. Anointed by the Adinkra symbol for "the dynamics of life/time's changes", she alchemizes the suffering that fractures her, renews herself and blossoms time and time again.
Inside each of us, there's continual autumn.Our leaves fall and are blown out over the water.A crow sits in the blackened limbs and talks about what's gone.Then, your generosity returns: spring, moisture, intelligence, the scent of hyacinth and rose and cypress...There's a necessary dying, and then... breathing again. Very little grows on jagged rock. Be ground. Be crumbled, so wildflowers will come up where you are. You've been stony for too many years. Try something different. Surrender.
Did Not Your Morning Start With Darkness
Summary:
The title “Did Not Your Morning Start WithDarkness” is gleaned from a line in a Midnite song, and is a call to reframe the negative characterization of blackness. The Black Madonna, with a gilded heart/core, honors the first dark mother who birthed humanity, challenging viewers to see blackness as powerful, as beautiful, as the source, and as the counterpoint (not opposite) to light.Her halo is a crown of the Adinkra symbol Hye Won Hye, “that which cannot be burned” - a symbol of imperishability. It is a prayer for the continued endurance of the black community against oppression.
Did Not Your Morning Start With Darkness II
Summary:
The title “Did Not Your Morning Start With Darkness”is gleaned from a line in a Midnite song, and is a call to reframe the negative characterization of blackness through portraying the archetypal Black mother of humanity. With love in her heart for her children in a world where wrong is right and up is down, the blue lotus of resurrection symbolizes limitless chances for renewal. Her crown of hair defies gravity in a DNA helix, and she is haloed by the flower of life sacred geometry symbol, which represents the circle of life and cosmic order, the interconnectedness of all things, and the blueprint of life that holds the secrets of creation and the universe.
I Can Breathe: A Beloved Remembrance
Summary:
“I Can Breathe: A Beloved Remembrance” is a visual, energetic, and spiritual transmuting (not an erasure) of the police chokehold that killed Eric Garner. The heinous gesture unfolds here as a loving embrace in the arms of a divine consort, cradling him on a bed of African Dream Root (aSouth African medicinal herb that aids in connecting with the ancestral realm). The scarlet ibis of South America/Caribbean is a nod to the white Ibis-headed Egyptian god Thoth (scribe and judge), but its red color evokes blood and a link to the diaspora. Circling the urban landscape, the black chested snake eagles represent (in Zulu lore) victory in a cruel and pitiless world. The mirror she wields is a call for the viewer to engage with the tragedy and transcendence in a concrete way.
Listen
Summary:
Inspired by the Sweet Honey in the Rock Song “Breaths”, this figure reminds us we can hear the voices/guidance of our ancestors all around us, if we only listen.
Red in The Forest
Summary:
To spot something red in a forest is to be struck with a sense of awe and serendipity. This work captures a moment in a sacred journey. A glimpse of a figure within the moving frame is releasing Bleeding Heart Vine blossoms, native to West Africa, into the ether. The central figure cradles a cardinal-a totem of vitality, faith, natural cycles, caretaking, and dedication. Typically, the phrase “bleeding heart" is used to describe someone empathetic and compassionate. Yet, here, the phrase also literally refers to some wound or trauma, implying that to understand another's pain, one must have first felt pain. Therefore, the pain that trauma causes is what brings the heart tenderness and gives the potential for positive self/community transformation. The dual meaning of the phrase is, in itself, a cyclical metaphor for the journey from heartache/pain to tenderness/compassion to generosity/altruism, and often back, again and again. Both the blossoms and the bird are symbolic reminders that during this process, on every journey, there is the call to surrender and act of surrendering, yet there is simultaneously an intrinsic and sacred sense of possessing all that is needed for the voyage.
Arrow Of The Intangible Army
Summary:
This figure personifies the conviction that our ancestors and martyrs form an intangible army that guides, emboldens, and empowers us. Their numbers are alluded to as silhouettes beyond the cityscape, their blessings are illustrated in the African Dream Root totem (traditionally taken as a spiritual tea), and their power is concentrated in the arrow she holds with a sun-printed feather tip.
Tehuti’s Bower
Summary:
Tehuti is the ancient Egyptian scribe and keeper of knowledge-he is symbolized here by the sacred geometry pattern of Metatron’s cube, whose gilded pattern represents spiritual knowledge. In nature, the bower bird creates beautiful art by colorfully composing bits of what humans discarded into a love nest. This figure represents beauty in the ordinary, and the true power in that which is too often overlooked, including the value in marginalized people.
Transmission
Summary:
This archetype represents the need for the transmission of ancient knowledge, truth, and identity-represented by the 80million year old South African protea flower.