ART-PRESENTATION: MAMI
The Knockdown Center, is housed in a former glass factory in Maspeth, Queens. Owned by a private individual who lives onsite in a drool-worthy, barnlike structure attached to the main, the space was officially re-inaugurated this summer as an arts center with the mission “To inspire and host the most inventive, courageous, and powerful creative projects it possibly can”.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Knockdown Center Archive
“MAMI” is a visual art exhibition and program series, on presention at Knockdown Center. The title of the exhibition is an offering to Mami Wata, a pantheon of water deities that originates from West and Central African matriarchal spiritual systems. Commonly portrayed as a singular part-woman/part-aquatic creature, Mami Wata is called upon by those pursuing wealth, wisdom, emotional guidance, sexual liberation, and more. At once beautiful, jealous, generous, and unpredictable, Mami Wata is the embodiment of contradiction and hybridity. The exhibition presents installations by: Salome Asega, Nona Faustine, Doreen Garner, Aya Rodriguez-Izumi, MALAXA, and Rodan Tekle. Salome Asega is an artist and researcher whose practice celebrates multivocality and welcomes dissensus, using interactive installation and odd wearables. Nona Faustine’s photography explores the intersection of race, identity, womanhood, and representation in the 21st Century. Doreen Garner’s current research project centers on the history of the black female body in medicine, and dynamics of race, sexuality, pathology, and fetishism. Aya Rodriguez-Izumi’s practice includes painting, drawing, sculpture and music using satire and whimsy to examine how our environments shape us. MALAXA is a Johannesburg (occupied Azania) and Tel Aviv (occupied Palestine) based collective spearheaded by new media artists Tabita Rezaire and Alicia Mersy, whose work explores decolonial aesthetics and political resistance through digital culture, art, documentary and fashion. Rodan Tekle’s work examines the screen environment within the African diaspora through motion and graphic design, 3-D rendering, and game engine based design. In addition to the series of installations that transform Knockdown Center’s arresting raw architecture, is also programmed an line-up of events.
Info: Curators: Dyani Douze & Ali Rosa-Salas, Knockdown Center, 52-19 Flushing Ave, Maspeth, New York, Duration: 6/8-4/9/16, Days & Hours: Thu-Fri 17:00-21:00, Sat-Sun: 14:00-20:00, http://knockdown.center
