Inye Wokoma: This Is Who We Are

JULY 9 – SEPTEMBER 4, 2016

The Frye Art Museum is proud to present This Is Who We Are, the first museum exhibition of Seattle-based filmmaker and visual artist Inye Wokoma. Inspired by meditations on land and lineage, nature and ancestry,This Is Who We Are investigates the evolving relationship between place and identity through the lens of spirituality and indigenous traditions.

The exhibition reflects Wokoma’s family heritage, which has roots on his mother’s side in African culture of the American South, and on his father’s side in the Niger Delta Ijo/Kalabari cultures and traditions. This melding of ancestry—the convergence of two distinctive sets of family traditions—is the foundation of Wokoma’s cultural and spiritual journey as illustrated in This Is Who We Are. The exhibitionexplores the ways that complex family histories inform our identities and give shape to our social and political realities.

This Is Who We Are examines how migration and displacement force cultures to change and adapt. What is retained, what is lost, and what is generated anew when communities are moved? A lifelong resident of Seattle’s Central District—a neighborhood undergoing rapid redevelopment—Wokoma acknowledges that his home is built on the ancestral land of the Duwamish. As he resists gentrification by fighting to retain his place in the neighborhood, Wokoma concedes his participation in a cycle of displacement: “I live amongst the Duwamish, in the midst of their perpetual displacement and dislocation. I know that the politics of my resistance cannot be separated from the politics of their displacement.”

This Is Who We Are is a deeply personal exploration of questions relating to Wokoma’s identity and our collective reality as co-inhabitants of this place and time. Central to the exhibition is a multi-channel video work that is both performative and cinematic. It documents a ceremonial ritual performed by the artist whereby the living and ancestral members of Wokoma’s family are introduced to the living and ancestral members of the Duwamish. Wokoma notes:

The performance emerges and takes form out of personal spiritual and psychological constructs. It extrudes from a broad understanding of the cosmology forming my peoples’ indigenous spiritual systems while recognizing the importance of invention in addressing new problems of human existence. The cinematic tradition is the means through which this performance is communicated in a public space, the museum. The vernacular is symbolic, non-linear, and ritualistic.

Inye Wokoma completed a degree in journalism and filmmaking from Clark Atlanta University before establishing Ijo Arts Media Group in Seattle. His work for corporate and non-profit clients has appeared inUSA Today, ColorsNW, Washington Law and Politics, and Chicago Wilderness among others. Wokoma received a Telly Award in 2012, and he has received honors at the Colorado Environmental Film Festival, the Society of Professional Journalists Western Washington Chapter, and the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. For over two decades, Wokoma has created and exhibited visual art that engages the diverse communities in which he lives and works.

Inye Wokoma: This Is Who We Are is organized by the Frye Art Museum and curated by Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker. The exhibition is funded by the Frye Foundation with the generous support of Frye Art Museum members and donors. Seasonal support is provided by 4Culture, ArtsFund, and Seattle Office of Arts & Culture.

Center

Contemporary Arts

What You See is What You Sweat
August 4-27, 2016

"What You See is What You Sweat" flips cultural appropriation around and builds relationships between communities of color where whiteness is not the center

Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA) in Seattle is proud to present What You See is What You Sweat from August 4 - 27, 2016.

What would it look like if artists and curators of color could appropriate a conversation about 'appropriation' in contemporary art? The aim is to flip the script. After all, appropriation is a power play. White supremacy, sexism, transphobia or classism function plainly by dint of it. Yet Western artists from Duchamp to Warhol have made use of appropriation to shift cultural contexts. If we look at appropriation in an open-ended way, what is behind the curtain of ownership, cultural exchange, authenticity, and meaning making here? And can we use appropriation to find the types of relationship-building taking place between communities of color where whiteness is not the center? And to this end how are white artists looking at history and social change? Creativity and power (both balanced and imbalanced) make odd bedfellows. Suffice it to say, What You See is What You Sweat is a 21st century ride on the dark side of possibilities.

What You See is What You Sweat is made up of a curatorial team of five doers and thinkers who are creating space for arts audiences and artists who shop in the ethnic foods aisle and those who hit the streets for social change. They include: C. Davida Ingram (artist/writer/curator/educator), Chieko Philips (curator/historian/exhibition designer), Christopher Shaw (artist/designer), Leilani Lewis (curator/producer) and Zorn B. Taylor (artist/educator/futurist).

A diverse selection of media from video and textiles to paintings and photographs will be presented from artists including Alex Anderson, Juventino Aranda, Romson Bustillo, Micha Cardenas, Nicholas Galanin, C. Davida Ingram, Satpreet Kahlon, Mark Mitchell, Darius Morrison, Zorn Taylor, and Jeffrey Veregge, Viradeth Xay-Ananh.

An opening reception with the artists and curators will be held on August 4, from 6-9pm at CoCA PS35 located at 106 Cherry Street, Seattle, 98104.

Gallery hours are Thursday through Saturday from 1-7pm.

Header images (from L to R): Romson Bustillo, Juventino Aranda, Satpreet Kahlon

Next Event:

Opening Reception
August 4, 2016, 6-9pm
Location: CoCA PS35, 106 Cherry St., 98104
Part of the Pioneer Square Art Walk

Fine Arts Exhibitions and Galleries

featuring

Black African American Visual Artists

this

Summer in Seattle.

Please visit their individual websites for more information

Bellevue Art Museum: Fine Arts exhibitions of visual artists: Kara Walker and The Ebony Fashion Fair 50th year celebration.