Archived Diary Entries

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016
BONNE ANNÉE/BON ANÉ
FROHES NEUES JAHR!
JANUS, for which January is named, is a month of REFLECTIONS towards the RECENT PAST & EMERGING FUTURE

In August/September 2015 i had the opportunity again to work with Reál Dance Company (Thomas Körtvélyessy) in conjunction with his solo presentation of his choreographic work at Mirta Demare International Visual Arts

It's that time of year again, midsummer, and I will be teaching/leading the Art & The Echo Chamber Workshop that i devised two years ago or so for TransArtInstitute ( a Low residency MFA/PhD. program). 

"A great dealer does a good job for the collector but a great job for artists. A great adviser does a good job for the artists but a great job for the collector" – (7Days in the art world)

I love this photo by architect Steven Keith from the opening night of Between History And The Body at The 8th Floor Gallery of the Shelly and Donald Rubin Foundation.

This is a video draft of Comment Nannite est devenu tante Cilet so kindly taken for me the day of the NSU Art museum opening 25 June 2015 in Fort Lauderdale Florida. 

This was a huge effort from every direction. It was a great effort none the less to have done. An action, a lecture, a sculpture-installation etc.

It's late October and I am scrambling on the final stretches of the new works to be presented at the Grand Palais in November 2014. Haïti.

(Photo of JnU Désert: courtesy of Didier Plowy for Réunion des musées nationaux-Grand Palais service presse)

In conjunction with Arabesque / The Goddess Temple an artwork that recreates the imaginary ruins of the 1928 modernist Adolf Loos Parisian villa of Josephine Baker using draped velvet embossed with fragments of the epic poem El Atlal الأطلال (The Ru

One-on-one passport Consultations with the artist (foto: courtesy of KunsthalKAdE, Netherlands)

I was recently invited by the cultural group Africavenir to attend a Berlin screening of Toussaint Louverture  starring Haitian actor Jimmy Jean-Louis.

One component of my artistic contributions for the "Who More Sci-Fi Than Us" exhibition initiated by Nancy Hoffman as guest curator for the Kunsthal KadE was a simple take away: 

Today I received an eMail from Nana with a link to the January Paris conference that can be watched by those of us in Germany (Though i suspect the "robots" will find something to forbid us yet again). 

I had the opportunity once returning to Berlin after the BIAC Biennale in Martinique to participate in an exhibition at the Gallery/Project Space/archive called SAAVY Contemporary in Berlin-Neuekoelln

A television interview with the director (directrice) of the BIAC Johanna AUGUIAC-CELENICE.

The trip to Martinique (via Paris CDG transfer to Orly) was rich and full of experiences. 

A new work entitled "AMOUR COLERE FOLIE a temporary monument to resistance" – will soon be created with the assistance of artist Hervé Beuze and local artstudents in Martinique for the BIAC.

I am very happy to announce that RADICAL PRESENCE / Black Performance in Contemporary Art arrives to New York City at the Downtown (part1) *GREY ART GALLERY and uptown (part2) at the Studio Museum in Harlem. 

I was honored to be asked by the young choreographer/dancer Thomas Körtvélyessy of Real Dance Company based in Rotterdam to assist him as Dramaturg in the creation of his new work-in-progress entitled Pelleas Material- a new work based on Claude

This summer a PHD art program (Trans Art Institute) that often spends its summer in Berlin has asked me to put together and teach a workshop of my own choosing. 

It has been a rather busy several months already since January before and after the trip to Paris for the Black Portraiture(s) Conference.

Ordering this issue with the feature on my work in a conversation with art historian Jerry Philogene can be had by going to this link www.arcthemagazine.com Issue No.7 will include a Creative Caribbean Community & Diaspora Passport created f

It is FINALLY demolished. It should not have been demolished in my opinion. It should have been preserved AS a RUIN. The conscious effort to erase significant symbols is always a mistake.

Paris. an internationally key and highly influential Western space in all things concerning the arts and modernity, is the perfect stage for Black Portraiture[s]: The Black Body in the West, the fifth in a series of conferences organized by Harvard University and NYU since 2004.

Just got off the telephone with "mediator" Nancy Hoffman who is curating an exhibition in Amersfoort (The Netherlands) at the KAdE Kunsthal with artworks by me and our Caribbean diaspora's creative-community.

Yesterday i took 25 minutes to watch a cinematic work by Werner Herzog.
I am very taken by this minimalist work and have been impressed by every piece i have seen by this German filmmaker.

I saw this film many years ago and I found it very interesting in all its details. "Haiti" seems to arise from nowhere in the film- other than as a strong "symbol" for black sovereignty and pride (yet caged).

This springtime 2012 has been very full for me after spending nearly a month in New York City- mostly with family/friends and some brief but necessary interview work for some articles later in the year.

A long week of diligent work and focus by many involved at and around the Kunsthal Kade in Amersfort brought to fruition a rather splendid show.

The main Exhibtion link is http://whomorescifithanus.nl/

Things Have been busy here in Berlin!

I just took a 2 week trip to the Netherlands, <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Terschelling,+Netherlands&hl=en&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=50.244827,103.447266&vpsrc=0&hnear=Terschelling&t=h&z=12">Terschelling</a> island to be specific.

Lectures can be great ways to think. It forces all of us to understand what we are doing as we communicate our practice, with words, to others. It has a therapeutic quality as well. The above images reflect the following;

In a recent show that included my work, there was a photograph by the afro-deutsch (afro-german) artist Philip Metz that caught my eye.

For this phase of the Goddess Project entitled The Goddess Constellations i decided to portray the something rather abstract yet meaningful- the hour of death and transcendence.

The Goddess Project is a large on-going work that encompasses various parts.  It encompass the Shrine of the Divine Negress Nr.1 as seen in this short video walk through at Dada Post Gallery in Berlin Germany. 

Photo of the official opening ceremonies of the "Negerhosen2000 / Postkarten von meinen Lieben" Quivid Billboards commission, with me, Jean-Ulrick Désert (left) Munich's mayor (Oberbürgermeister) Christian Ude (center) and acclaim