BLACK IMAGINATION: Ritual Objects
August 6th to September 2nd, 2018
Reception for the Artist, August 18th, 6 to 9pm RSVP
Bottled. Black. Joy. We are powerful, innovative, and transcendent. Black bruja, Black mermaid, Black orisha, Black priestess. Black alchemist. Black apothecary. Black healer. This exhibition is a unique durational black womxn led ritual allowing for the joyful transmutation of generational trauma through the exchange of both wisdom & resources.
Ritual Objects is the third in a experimental triptych of 2018 exhibits pivoting around the idea of the Black Imagination-- a delicate realm protected and sustained only by the powerful dynamism of black-identified individuals around the world. Previous iterations, The States of Matter (January 2018) and The (g)LISTENING (April 2018) used technology and storytelling to create a publicly accessible dialogues around black joy, wellness, and creativity for a live gallery experience accessible by appointment only.
This project came to fruition because of the generous support of Black Imagination co-curators, Amber Flame, Rachael Ferguson, and Imani Sims, and because of the generous audio and text contributions from over 100 black-identified people from all over Washington state and the world-- from as far away as Morocco, Belize, New Zealand, and Taiwan. This project unapologetically centers and focuses on Black Humanity, celebrates our multitudinous spiritual and cultural territories, and also takes into account how income inequality is historically predicated. 4Culture, Seattle's Office of Arts & Culture, Seattle People of Color Salon, and from generous contributions from individuals also made this work possible.
"The US is visually white but sonically black. We have for the eyes, the face of Marilyn Monroe, but for the ears, the voice of Billie Holiday. And so it is in sound that American blackness has its greatest and most immediate power. Black Imagination exploits this power effectively." -Charles Mudede, The Stranger
Natasha Marin is a conceptual artist whose people-centered projects have circled the globe since 2012 and have been recognized and acknowledged by Art Forum, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the LA Times, NBC, Al Jazeera, Vice, PBS and others. This year, the City of Seattle and King County have backed BLACK IMAGINATION-- a series of conceptual exhibitions. Black Imagination has engaged (and paid!) black folks from all over the PNW region and the world-- amplifying, centering, and holding sacred a diverse sample of voices including LGBTQIA+ black youth, incarcerated black women, black folks with disabilities, unsheltered black folks, and black children. The viral web-based project, Reparations, engaged a quarter of a million people worldwide in the practice of "leveraging privilege," and earned Marin, a mother of two, death threats by the dozens. As a busy consultant and community builder, Natasha was listed as one of 30 women who "Run This City" by Seattle Met magazine in 2018.