STATE(D) imagines utopia through a queer Black feminist lens where we reckon with nature, white male gun violence, and the divisive turbulence of our political climate to arrive in a space where nature is considered above all else. Logs strapped together with zip ties hang overhead and house a projector inside of its foreboding structure. As audience members walk into the dimly lit, purple hazed, industrial space, the video projects Dr. Pearl Primus and Audre Lorde onto a salt covered floor. Rich brown soil separates the salted “screen” from the pedestrian floor and forces audiences members to consider their relationship to the natural environment while consuming the sound and images the video projects. By beginning with Dr. Primus and Ms. Lorde, the video establishes African dance and queer Black feminism as the roots upon which we collage images of us dancing and performing across time, with white men hunting geese, and a sound score that documents the seemingly endless loop of our racist infrastructure. Like Mother Nature, the installation is hauntingly beautiful and potentially dangerous.


Pivot Arts Festival
Imagining Utopia: A Celebration of Contemporary Performance
Chicago, IL | May 21-June 6, 2021