A visitor to the Frye Art Museum interacts with “and watching thereunto” by Christopher Paul Jordan. The painting is constructed on a vinyl window and done in negative colors; by viewing the work of art through a phone camera’s “color inversion” setting, the colors show as planned. The exhibit at the Frye “In the Interim: Ritual Ground for a Future Black Archive” pairs Jordan’s work with Arnaldo James’s photographs; both Jordan and James identify as Black and are using this exhibit to present a world of shared experience across the African disapora. Included in the exhibit is a sealed audio recording chamber, where recordings of stories and experiences from visitors who identify as Black will be put into a time capsule for later Black communities.
Ashley Archibald is the editor of Real Change News.
Read more of the Mar. 2-8, 2022 issue.