In a performance and installation that revises the storybook character Rapunzel, D. Denenge Akpem transforms herself into what she calls "a space sea siren hybrid human-jellyfish" replete with dangling lighted fiber-optic tentacles. She spawns a surreal environment where "afri-futurism," the aquatic world, and fairy tales meet, while also subversively flirting with representations of Black femininity, seduction, and repulsion and what constitutes a damsel-in-distress. In her performance she inhabits the jellyfish and becomes a living sculpture.
Read an interview with the artist by MCA Marjorie Susman Curatorial Fellow Miesha Harris
Funding
Sponsored by
 |