Alisa Sikelianos-Carter USA, b. 1983
Looking Forward and Backward and Upward and Through; Black into Blue, Me Onto You (II), 2022
Acrylic, gouache, glitter, micaceous iron oxide, and abalone shell on archival paper
119 x 126 in
302.3 x 320 cm
302.3 x 320 cm
8422
Further images
Looking Forward and Backward and Upward and Through; Black into Blue, Me Onto You is perfectly titled. The work is multilayered, multi-directional, rhyming, rhythmic, and relational at its core. The...
Looking Forward and Backward and Upward and Through; Black into Blue, Me Onto You is perfectly titled. The work is multilayered, multi-directional, rhyming, rhythmic, and relational at its core. The largest work in the exhibition, its bright colors and movement ring through the whole of the space. This work depicts a Future Ancestor on the left and an Afronaut on the right. They interlock arms, holding hands in the shape of infinity. The Future Ancestor has traveled back in time to meet the Afronaut who has now undergone their full transformation. Both fully formed, we witness them in a moment of bright connection and transference. The past and future collide as they interlock hands into a moment of bursting energies. Light, oceanic and galactic forms zoom around them. The Future Ancestor with its head made of braids and adorned scalps appears how we may imagine an alien to look. This work represents the importance of hair as a divine technology of Blackness in Sikelianos-Carter’s practice. Hair is significant to each figure and its purpose in this ancient universe.