Insist is the latest in Allana Clarke’s series of one word poems molded in cocoa butter (the others being Relentless, and Blacklack). The series activates words that foster ideas in viewers that center their subjectivity, and motivate thoughts about their personhood in relation to another. “I am interested in highlighting the slipperiness of language depending upon how the idea of a word resonates with you.” Each letter in Clarke’s text-based works is formed by pouring melted cocoa butter into a silicone mold, which then takes about two days to set. Cocoa butter relates to Clarke’s ongoing examination of self-care rituals she learned as a child. A paradox exists in her feelings about cocoa butter, as loving memories of being caressed with lotion by her mother, feeling protected and prepared for going out into the world, coexist with a sense that what Clarke refers to as a “ritual of alteration” indoctrinated her into a world that is “anti-Black.” Cocoa butter carries additional complications for Clarke due to its fraught history with colonialism, brutality, slavery, and unfair economic models that harm Black people and communities. “By activating this material and creating text pieces I aim to explore something that is at once comforting and familiar and laced with contradiction,” says Clarke.