ARCAthens Virtual Residency July 2022

In addition to her advocacy, she is the founder of Warrior Woman, a rehabilitation program for displaced trauma survivors, and the founder and Editor in Chief of ‘Distinguished Diva’,
a collective that fosters community building, communication, outreach, and global accessibility for women of African descent with a focus on telling and amplifying stories told by these women. Her work as an artist and healer has been featured in publications such as Women Under Siege, New York Times, Ms. Magazine, New Museum New York, Forbes, E-flux, Elle, and Vogue
As a coach, her area of expertise is spirituality coaching rooted in Yoruba Cosmology for activists, healers, and disruptors. Her work is centered around creating healing justice frameworks and infrastructures for activists and change-makers on the frontlines who are in need of spiritual guidance and protection with tools such as Reiki, Divination, and Tarot consultation.

Tasha Dougé is a Bronx-based, Haitian-infused artist, artivist & cultural vigilante. Her body of work activates conversations around women, advocacy, sex, education, societal “norms,” identity and Black pride. Through conceptual art, teaching, and performance, Dougé devotedly strives to evoke empowerment for women and illuminate the contributions of Black people, declaring that her “voice is the first tool within my art arsenal.”
She has been featured in The New York Times, Essence and Sugarcane Magazine. She has shown nationally at RISD Museum, The Apollo Theater & Rush Arts Gallery. Internationally, Dougé has shown at the Hygiene Museum in Germany. She is an alum of the Laundromat Project’s Create Change Fellowship, The Studio Museum of Harlem’s Museum Education Program, Haiti Cultural Exchange’s Lakou Nou residency, the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute’s Innovative Cultural Advocacy Program and their inaugural Digital Evolution Artist Retention program.

Marie Vickles is the Director of Education at the Pérez Art Museum Miami and administers programs at the museum that directly serve over 100,000 youth and adults annually. Marie has organized arts educational programs, workshops, and exhibitions across the United States and the Caribbean for over 15 years. She is currently the Curator-in-Residence at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex and maintains an active practice as an independent curator producing over 30 exhibitions and curatorial projects. Her curatorial work includes the co-curation of Prizm Art Fair, Miami, FL (2013), Visionary Aponte: Art and Black Freedom, Little Haiti Cultural Complex, Miami, FL (2017), walls turned sideways are bridges: narratives of resistance at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), Tallahassee, FL (2019), and Dust Specks on the Sea, Little Haiti Cultural Complex, Miami, FL (2019) and the San Francisco Art Institute (2021). In her work as an arts educator and cultural practitioner, she is concerned with the relationship between creativity and community engagement – with the goal of supporting equity, sustainability, and access for all, through the arts.
In my work as a curator, arts educator and cultural practitioner, I am concerned with the development of new ways to bridge the connections between creativity and community engagement – with the goal of supporting equity, sustainability and access for all, through the arts. The act of making art is both a sacred and ordinary practice that every human has the capacity, and duty to participate. I curate for the purpose of sharing, and inspiring those that come across an exhibition and the accompanying arrangements of letters, words, sentences and thoughts on what it means to “practice” art from the various entry points that exist in the continuum of creative work. My curatorial practice can be then stated as a manifesto on art as life and life as art:
- Art is a human right
- Art is a natural expression that all people are capable of demonstrating
- Art is a daily practice
- Art is thought and theory realized
- Art is an act of spirit that exists beyond commodification
Marie Vickles
AVR Synopsis - A Cross Cultural Dialogue Between the AVR Fellows
Instagram Visual Conversation
Week 1: Where We Meet

My name is Adéọlá Naomi Adérè̩mí
This is the work of tasha dougé
On my first response and introduction, I want us to reflect on the meaning of freedom, flags and nation states. How have we been allowed the space to be fully free in a world that aims and urge us to pick allegiance to symbols that are emblem of freedom for some but also shackles of bondage and imperialism for many people outside of those the emblem aim to protect. When I look at this image, I feel the need to access what freedom feels like to those many citizens whose freedom was never fully manifested, I think about those who believed their freedom could only be possible through the oppression of others and I think about the interconnected of all our freedom. Are we truly free once we pledge our allegiance to this emblem?
To know me is to understand my need to seek collective liberation and responsibility in all the non traditional and conventional space and things. A window of freedom awaits us in the world that is unknown but very much known to our souls.

Allow me to introduce myself…
my name is tasha dougé and this image is the work of Adéọlá Naomi Adérè̩mí. As the day draws near to the end of this psuedo holiday celebrating independence, I want to reflect on my own ideology of independence. This image is not of me, yet I see myself clearly. Gold radiating from my crown, I’m reminded that I am a celestial being like the Sun and my divinity continues to expand outward. Hair that creates its own rules, mine remains defiant towards gravity. Skin so rich with melanin that it exudes its own mystical glow. Hints of dominance and power complimented by a sweet and soft caress, I am at peace with the sovereignty that is me. I am a multiplicity of identities that lives in the abundant land of AND rather than the constraints of OR. All I hope and strive for is the opportunity for all to relish in their own individual and collective independence. And to me that is freedom.
(Sidebar: To know me is to know that I adore a BLACK lip.)

“Infinite space” “resources for all”, “there is no place like home” . This work of tasha dougé makes me think of what we experience as children of immigrants, artists whose ancestors and elders have left the safety of home either “voluntarily” or otherwise, to seek for a place with resources, to seek for a better, safer, brighter experiences for their descendants. The interlinked code in our shared but also individually history of being a diaspora. A creative who is always influx and in movement. As a being, an artist, I speak of my experience as the ebb and flows of the oceans. The movement of my AfroGreek, Yoruba identity as constantly changing, as ever being challenged and also every flexible for me to morph and form into whatever way I decide to show up. At least the illusion of choice is something I cling to when in reality, does any one of us diaspora artist ever actually have those choices?

Initially, I was going to select another image of Adéọlá’s. However, upon deeper reflection, this image speaks more to what has been evoked for me. When I think of “infinite space,” “resources for all,” and “no place like home,” all three make me think of the ocean. There are many times where I stare out at the sea and marvel at the fact it goes beyond my imagination’s capacity. It is a living resource that provides home and food and transportation and also shelter. The ocean is what physically connects me to my home of Ayiti (Haiti) and to the continent of Africa, home of ancestors long ago, but never forgotten. The ocean also harbors the stories related to my parents’ choices and the choices or lack of choices for others who came and continue to come to this land. I’m realizing in this moment that I don’t really know why my parents decided to leave Ayiti and come to the States. So there was a crossing of the waters to get here, but I’m also thinking about as a first-generation child, I was discouraged to not go
back to cross the same ocean to return back to my family’s home. It is crazy how folks, especially within my culture, would be okay with me not connecting to HOME. And so in this moment, I want to uplift my CHOICE to not be swayed otherwise and return to Ayiti (several times) and back to Africa (Nigeria was first, Kenya is next). I chose listen to my soul and so I’m grateful for the still and moving body that is the ocean because it connects me to my story and my people.
#PostedBytashadouge #tashadouge @convhersations_ #WhereWeMeet #εκειπουσυναντιόμαστε #weeklytheme #AAVirtualResidency #InstagramTakeover #AdeolaNaomiAderemi @adeola.naomi #Marievickles @marievickles #AVR6

In response to today’s post of tasha Douge.
I am going with this image they called invisible. In response to the hyper visibility of our prominent features as tasha spoke about in their quest of self love and presence, we sometimes wish to be invisible. The dichotomy of Black features being unafraid to be. Documenting yourself in history to state “Here I am” while trying to preserve some semblance of your humanity by hiding away from the many harmful systems that want to erase anyone that looks like you.

Look at those eyes. Look at those lips. I can’t count the amount of times people announced their gaze or directed someone else’s gaze to my features. “Oh what BIG eyes you have” and “Why are your lips so BIG?” were questions that went from being foreign to too damn familiar. Those questions were later accompanied by comments that went like “oohh you got some BIG lips!” which clearly represented a shift in how i was perceived and viewed. Imagine being bombarded by these “statements” at different times in my life that were critical to my physical and emotional development.
This image of Adéọlá’s depicts a person who knows themself in an unwavering fashion. There is a calm certainty of that states “HERE I AM.” And that is exactly where I am. I unabashedly LOVE my BIG eyes and FULL lips. My eyes help me see not only what is before me, but also spot out shenanigans before they come my way. My lips are the doors that open up to the power that is my voice. When I speak, I know I am ready to get into Good Trouble. Unafraid to speak because there where times when I didn’t (long time ago) and when others felt they could not. This is a love letter to my eyes, to my lips and to ME
#PostedBytashadouge #tashadouge @convhersations_ #WhereWeMeet #εκειπουσυναντιόμαστε #weeklytheme #AAVirtualResidency #InstagramTakeover #AdeolaNaomiAderemi @adeola.naomi #Marievickles @marievickles #AVR6

I look at this image from my co resident tasha douge and it makes me think of the intricacies of hair, reflections of self and others. The ability of Black hair to be crafted into art because it is art. I remembered the first time I got my locs installed, I felt how multifaceted way we can craft our hair into to reflect whatever emotions, mood we want to reflect back to society. I reflect on how we mirror ourselves in our hair and I feel like this too could be MY HAIR.

Profile. Silhouette. Deep thoughts. Reflection. I love the simplicity and the stark stillness of Adéọlá’s photo. It immediately puts me in a state of inquiry and curiosity. What does reflection look and feel like without a mirror? What does it require to see within without an external aid? As someone who constantly finds time to reflect and be introspective, this photo comforts me and reminds me that i have seen the fruits of my internal work. Welcome to my evolution.
AVR6 Curatorial Reflection #1 – Where We Meet
Week 2: Convhersations

Sorry for the late post, but I’m gonna get straight to my thoughts. It has been a joy connecting with myself through the lens of Adéọlá’s work.
Not only is it reflective for me, but it allows me to connect with Adéọlá through an another avenue. When I look at this portrait, I see YOUTH. Wide-eyed, curious, fresh, as well as, vulnerable. Vulnerable to the the words and ideologies of others that can easily derail or deter this person from their dreams or purpose. I also see subtle tenacity that gets overlooked, but comes out when needed. As someone who was born in 1981, I have been leery of being called a millennial. However, the way the Youth of today are out here carving out their own paths, setting their own rules, establishing and maintaining boundaries, I am encouraged that things are shifting. So a Minnenial I will be. Also, I want to add that age doesn’t have to disconnect one from their youth. (That last statement was offered by my inner child.)

I have spent the week introducing myself to you through the work of tasha Douge and this final image is selected as my last post for this week of #Wherewemeet as I wanted to share what my new normal are as an artist, a creative in such turbulent time of the last three decades of my life here on this earth journey.
I am a 88 baby, a Neptune in Capricorn Millenial to the core. I remember spending endless time playing in nature, running home to watch my uncle develop films in his dark room, living a slow paced life where you need to rotate the stationary land phone to make an international call to my father who lived in Gothenburg Sweden at the time. I remember writing letters and sending telegrams, in a time when things took time, when we didn’t have expectations of each other to respond or react to news or messages within seconds. The last three years have reminded me of the benefits of those long time away and how much more I allowed myself the creative freedom to dream and just be in this new normal that is not that new in actuality.
It is a remembrance, something of a sankofa moment for us all on a collective consciousness.
I wonder what we have learned and where we are headed.
This week I want us to reflect on the movement and moment we create, whose already solid foundation do we built on and how do we create as solid a legacy for others who are coming after us?
Who is in our circle of creativity as artists?
Profile. Silhouette. Deep thoughts. Reflection. I love the simplicity and the stark stillness of Adéọlá’s photo. It immediately puts me in a state of inquiry and curiosity. What does reflection look and feel like without a mirror? What does it require to see within without an external aid? As someone who constantly finds time to reflect and be introspective, this photo comforts me and reminds me that i have seen the fruits of my internal work. Welcome to my evolution.


I look at this image from my co resident tasha douge and it makes me think of the intricacies of hair, reflections of self and others. The ability of Black hair to be crafted into art because it is art. I remembered the first time I got my locs installed, I felt how multifaceted way we can craft our hair into to reflect whatever emotions, mood we want to reflect back to society. I reflect on how we mirror ourselves in our hair and I feel like this too could be MY HAIR.






Legacy has come up a few times. Since this week’s theme is circle, I circled back to the beginning of arc_athens virtual residency w/ the first fellows. I read each post created by Blanka Amezkua (Bronx) & Eirene Efstathiou (Athens) from June 2020. I was truly blown away by what they shared. Their themes were location, proximity, movement & magic. It was
fascinating to see what was coming up for them during the beginning of this pandemic. Statements about the city reopening & questions around how we (re)learn to be close to each other quickly brought me back in time despite still being very much in the pandemic. So many choices, but Blanka’s last post really resonated w/ me in this moment. So to honor my fellow Bronx artist & AVR fellow, I will add what she posted below the comments section. I’ve also added images (that I’ve taken) that evoke what is stated #3, 5, 8 & 11. Let this be areminder to look back & honor those who have done the work before us. Thank you Blanka (@blankaamezkua) & Eirene (@eireneefstathiou)!!!
#PostedBytashadouge #tashadouge @convhersations_ #circle #weeklytheme #week2 #day2 #AAVirtualResidency #InstagramTakeover #AdeolaNaomiAderemi @adeola.naomi #Marievickles @marievickles #AVR6 #sankofa #legacy




Egungun:
Ancestral spirit that live on through us their descendants. In Yorúbà culture and cosmology, we believe in the ancestral loop, we know that every child that is born is the reincarnated soul of an ancestor. Thus in this reincarnation, we believe continues the cycle of life. Nothing dies and stay dead, nothing is alive unless it is able to die. This applies to our art and craft, the art of our ancestors and their talents continue to live through us. I want to share some of them with you, our egungun masquerade, a collective craft made of fabrics by the commune for celebrating and honouring the ancestors of said commune. Some of these artworks are no longer where they rightfully belong with the descendants of those who made but their cyclical spirits lived on in the land of their forebearers. In the land that birthed them out of pure communal creative freedom. Our creative spirit is as spiritual as it is communal. Nothing and nobody works alone. The ancestral loop will forever keep on looping.
These are some images I took of an egungun art at the private collection of a very kind African American elder & custodian of Afrodiasporic art in Atlanta.

Growing up, I was raised to avoid & fear Voodoo/Vodou. Like many other people of Haitian descent, I was baptized & brought up in the Roman Catholic Church. With my constant questioning, I always felt I was 2 steps away from getting excommunicated. Nonetheless, as I got older my relationship w/ God and my faith evolved. I will be the first to say that I rock with Black Jesus, but my understanding of who walks w/ me has broaden. I would say my awakening accelerated once I stepped into my artistic journey. I’m am very clear that ancestors surround me and lwas walk w/ me. I chose this image taken by @boogiedownspring b/c the impromptu photoshoot gave way to a moment we called Sunday Magic. Oliver & Jess worked on the editing and treatments w/out imput from me. The photo series (including this image) debuted at the @thecoloredgirlsmuseum. During the weekend of the opening, someone came up to me & pointed out that there was a deity in my photo. To my surprise, there in fact it was. Larger than my physical body, but attached at my hands, it was then that I was introduced to my purpose spirit. I’m also clear that my art practice is a spiritual & ancestral practice. So a chance encounter w/ a Mambo (during my last trip
to Ayiti) led her to tell me that Ogu aka Ogou is the lwa that walks w/ me. Ogu is the God of fire, iron, politics, thunder & war. He is also connected to metalwork & rum. The connection makes complete sense to me based on thr way I show up. Ogu is said to be the Haitian iteration of Ogun of the Yoruba people. Well whomever it is, I do know that I choose to the honor the many ways in which God, Ancestors & Lwas (all divine) show up for me my ending my prayers w/ Ase, Amen & Ayibobo.
#PostedBytashadouge #tashadouge @convhersations_ #circle #weeklytheme #week2 #day2 #AAVirtualResidency #InstagramTakeover #AdeolaNaomiAderemi @adeola.naomi #Marievickles @marievickles #AVR6 #sankofa #legacy



As a photographer and someone who enjoys cocreation in my artistic practice, I find that my creative circle are in constant flow. The Venn diagram shared by tasha spoke perfectly to how I have been navigating been an academic, an artist and overall creative. I had my first solo photography exhibition earlier this year and I was called to reflect on the circle of people who made it possible, those who birthed the need for my work to be seen by people far from my inner circle. Those who bought the work and those who sold it to collectors, the creative circle of elders who challenged me to see beyond my own beliefs of solely being an academic and resistance to embrace the fullness of my artistic identity, being born to academic Nigerian partners and family will do that to anyone. I was raised to see myself as an extension of those academic legacies and art can only be allowed to be a side hobby, something I enjoy but rarely allowed full centre stage. This year that changed as I started treating my art as my life force and respecting it fully as much as I respect everything else I do.
These are some images from the second exhibition I showed my work on this year right after the premiere of my debut film.
Agbara is a photographic series on African diasporic women reclaiming power and agency through domination and freedom in the BDSM spaces.
The first image is a quote on how we don’t find our passion, we actually do need to grow it like with everything else. Passion must be conjured, cocreated and nurtured.





Yesterday was a whirlwind of a day. In the midst of preparing for an opening, I signed Nadedja, my younger cousin, up for her 1st art class!! Yea she may have taken some art in school (I don’t know for sure since art is always the first to go in schools), but this is different. I sent her a listing of the summer classes offered by @bronxriverartcenter and she selected Drawing and Printmaking! I scooped her and dropped her off nervous and excited for what would come. Then I dashed home, got ready & made my way to the opening. This opening was different because it was my debut as a… Photographer! Two months away in the mountains of North Carolina for a @penlandphoto workshop w/ @mercedes_jelinek & @jonverney has forever changed my life!! And this moment is evidence of that. Photography is now a new circle (medium) in the Venn Diagram that is my artistic practice. This morning, I woke up to the wonderful messages from my cousin expressing the fun she had and the excitement of what’s next along w/ images of what she made. My heart is so full because we are both relishing in the joy offered by the realm of something new. So as I reflect more on the theme of circle, I think about the circle of experiences we bring into our lives, the circle of people we share this life with and each memory as a circle we hold on to.
Image 1: Venn Diagram
Image 2: Nadedja’s print
Image 3-5: My Awe, Joy and Humility
displayed at the opening.
AVR6 Curatorial Reflection #2: Convhersations
Week 3: Bridge


When I think of bridge what comes to my mind is connection.
Making space for the connection of two different elements, people and places.
When tasha asked who are the people that serves as bridges in our art and lives, I think of all the incredible artists that have came before me like Malick Sidibé and how we artists serve as bridge between themselves, their inner worlds, their ideas and the inner world of the beholders of the said artwork.
Here are some of the images of Malick Sidibé that served as bridges between myself and the artist.
“Throughout his exuberant, black-and-white portrait photography, Malick Sidibé documented everyday life and youth culture in Bamako, the capital of his native Mali. Sidibé’s stylish scenes captured a period
of national growth in the country after its liberation from French colonial rule in 1960. His photographs are both historical records and intimate celebrations of a new national identity. Sidibé’s work has been exhibited in New York, London, Paris, Rome, Geneva, and Los Angeles. In 2007, the artist became the first African and first photographer to win the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale. His photographs belong in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the International Center of Photography, and Moderna Museet.”
Image 1: Nuit de Noël (Happy-Club), 1963
Image 2: Regardez-moi, 1962
#PostedbyAdéọláNaomiAdérè̩mí
@adeola.naomi
#AdéọláNaomiAdérè̩mí
#bridges #γέφυρα #AAVirtualResidency #InstagramTakeover
#tashadouge and @convhersations_ #MarieVickles @MarieVickles #photography
#AVR6 #elders #Sankofa





When I hear the word bridge, I think of George Washington, Triboro, Whitestone, Throggs Neck, Brooklyn and sometimes the Verrazano. That’s the New Yorker in me. On a basic level, they get me from point A to point B. Yet when I drive across one, I’m always in sheer awe of its magic. I mean think about the level of genius it takes to build and engineer for the weight & amount of cars and massive trucks long before they were even imagined.
This week’s theme is bridge and I wanted to go deeper. So I looked up the purpose of a bridge. Wikipedia says ” A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually something that is otherwise difficult or impossible to cross.”
This is a reminder that my connections and conversations with other artists serve as bridges for me to get over the obstacles I’ve come across. Also, the engineers were not only geniuses, they were dreamers they ventured to make the impossible possible. So I leave yall with two questions: 1) who are the people that serve as bridges to get you from point A to point B and 2) what bridges are you engineering in your life to get you over what feels impossible to what is very possible?
Image 1: types of bridges
Image 2: Ruyi bridge in China
Image 3: Unknown bridge
Image 4: Brooklyn Bridge at sunset
Image 5: Brooklyn Bridge reimagined
#PostedBytashadouge #tashadouge @convhersations_ #bridge #weeklytheme #week3 #day1 #AAVirtualResidency #InstagramTakeover #AdeolaNaomiAderemi @adeola.naomi #Marievickles @marievickles #AVR6 #sankofa #legacy #venndiagram #art #obstacle #impossible #possible

Bridge day 2,
I was thinking about how in Tasha’s definition of bridge yesterday we had to reflect on the engineering of a bridge. I was thinking of the architect who envisioned the first bridge, most of the first manual bridge we see in nature were made out of necessity and the need to carry goods from point a to point b. What if we think of bridges in creative spaces, among artists and their circle? What if we reflect on the necessity of art for the collective human survival? How would we better treat artists and their arts if we start seeing them as the bridge between us and the divine creative energy within them? As part of the collective well-being and liberation? Would we then demand that art are better funded and prioritise across the board? Would we protect our artistic and cultural heritage better ? What would art be like if we start treating artists as the bridge and cultural custodians that they are?
Image of a bridge in the U.K. I took while reflecting on briges.

What would art be like if we start treating artists as the bridges and cultural custodians that they are?
One thing that I love thus far about this residency is that Adéọlá and I aren’t afraid to dig deep and ask key questions. I see questions as entry points to visioning and with the question above, I can’t help but reflect on time. Time not only in the sense of duration, but as an indication of dedication. The time required to research and the time in which energy is exchanged, all equates to a deep investment into the making of art. Thinking about my own practice, I can recount the many times my work has been reduced to the total amount of seconds as a way to calculate value and worth. However, if those outside the manifestation process could really comprehend all that has gone into that process, artists would be treated and valued more as the bridges and cultural custodians that we are. While it is wonderful that people appreciate the work that they have laid their eyes on or whichever sense that has engaged with the work, it’s the process that has shaped and evolved the artist aka truth teller that remains. So as we are in a pivotal moment, let us honor and hold the artists that create “Art at a Time like this.”


1) what are some bridge protection systems that you have created for yourself as an artist and 2) what systems (ie institutions or programs) do you feel exist to protect you?
These questions are deeply profound but also essential for all artist to answer for ourselves as custodians and bridges.
My answer is linked to my tattoo that the very observant tasha Douge mentioned in her post. I have inked the sun and the moon on my sternum as well as a phrase to remind whose i am, what lineage of fiery ancestors stand with and for me. I am from a lineage of healers, artists, conjures and pioneers. My tattoo is a constant reminder of the connectivity and continuity of our lineage and our alliance with the elements.
I am a reincarnate of the fiercest woman leader of my people, there are times I forgot and the tattoo serves as my permanent reminder, same as the scarification marks on my face.
More information: the two interlacing triangles inside the sun represents the downward movement of spirit (ancestors) into matter and the upward liberation of matter into spirit, both of them meeting in perfect harmony in the center of my being. The perfect integration of the physical and the metaphysical in allegiance to keep me safe and safeguard the evolution of our lineage through me and my work in this existence.
#PostedbyAdéọláNaomiAdérè̩mí
@adeola.naomi
#AdéọláNaomiAdérè̩mí
#bridges #γέφυρα #AAVirtualResidency #InstagramTakeover
#tashadouge and @convhersations_ #MarieVickles @MarieVickles #photography
#AVR6 #elders #Sankofa


Looking at Adéọlá’s images & videos, I noticed we both have tattoos in the area of our sternums. It doesn’t take much to pique my curiosity. So I looked up sternum despite already knowing what it is, but I will share as it relates to bridge. The sternum id a long, flat bone that bridges together (connects) our ribs to create our ribcage, which in turn protects our hearts, lungs and major blood vessels from injury. Reading this made me ask, who and what protects the bridge? A deeper dive led me to find out that there are Bridge Protection Systems created that are critical to the preservation of bridges. It may seem like “duh tasha,” but the truth is what seems obvious, often times gets overlooked and taken for granted until catastrophe happens. Since the last two posts established artists as bridges, I want to know 1) what
are some bridge protection systems that you have created for yourself as an artist and 2) what systems (ie institutions or programs) do you feel exist to protect you?
ADDITIONAL INFO:
1) My tattoo is of the Seed of Life. The Seed of Life is the life cycle of a seed. It is a geometric shape with 7 circles overlapping. The meaning of the 7 overlapping circles is the unique and universal symbol and pattern for creation. This symbol is found I art and in nature and is sacred geometry.
Tattoo done by BX tattoo artist @artbyjar
2) The word “sternum” originates from the Ancient Greek στέρνον (stérnon), meaning “chest”. I didn’t know this, but look at this synergy.
#PostedBytashadougé #tashadougé @convhersations_ #bridge #γεφυρα #weeklytheme #week3 #day3 #AAVirtualResidency #InstagramTakeover #AdéọláNaomiAdérè̩mí @adeola.naomi #Marievickles @marievickles #AVR6 #art #nature #sacredgeometry #tattoo #sternum #στέρνον #protection
Art as a bridge and the preciousness of that moment when a piece of art teleport you to another reality, space and timeline.
Is the art piece then not considered a bridge as much as the artist themselves for the beholder ?
We talked about art as a bridge. We talked about artists as bridges. But in this video, I reflect on how viewers/witnesses of art also serve as bridges.
In this video I reflect on the reasons we need bridges, the challenges and systemic obstacles that artists like myself face.
What is under the bridge? In this video, I talk about when and why I have needed a bridge. Focusing on the bridge is only one part of the story. It is just as important to recognize, acknowledge and name the obstacle, trial or challenge that requires a bridge as well.
AVR6 Curatorial Reflection #3: Bridge
Week 4: Gathering/ Sharing
Read More
Massive gratitude to all the incredible gathering of Afro Greeks who spoke to me and made this possible with their generosity and collective sharing. This is for all of us. Thank you all for trusting my dreams and honouring my ideas. Massive gratitude to @stateofconceptathens @ili.van.ili @andromaca.p @theeblackegg @aggelos_barai @danielle_rosales_official Director of photography: Aggelos Barai In the spirit of sharing, this is a trailer in Greek but I will be having a NYC premiere later this autumn with NYU, I hope you all watch it ana definitely open to screening it in your own institutions, invite me and let’s talk.
My directorial debut film “I am AfroGreek: Black portraiture in Greece” explores the stories and a portrayal of Black Greeks, a story of AfroGreeks from the AfroGreeks themselves. In this film, AfroGreeks are taking ownership of their stories boldly and inviting you all into their lives and experiences
Special thanks to all the participants who made this happen because it wouldn’t be without their time and generosity.
Jessica Onyinyechi Anosike @jessbean_
Manolis Afolayan @mc_yinka
Helene Nzanga @el.meredoula
Jerome Kaluta jerome_kaluta
Grace Chimela Eze Nwoke @gracy_ace
Sebene Eshete @that_sebene
Kirezi Chakizimana
I am grateful to ME, for seeing this project through and doing all the fighting necessary to see this through with myself.
Editor: Gevi Dimi
Design: Danielle Rosales
Translation: Andromaca Pap
Producer and Director: Adéọlá Naomi Adérè̩mí
Gratitude goes to my community of Afrogreeks in Greece and beyond.
During my @haiticulturalx Lakou Nou Residency, I never imagined my Flag Corps skills could ever connect to my Haitian lineage. However, when I found out that the Haitian National Anthem is named after our great leader, Dessalines, it just made sense to bring the two together.
At the time of this video, I hadn’t picked up a flag in over 20 years. Yet once in my hands, I felt right at home with my flag pole. What you are looking at is evidence of what happens when I share two things that I absolutely love. It’s an artistic expression of who I am. This video is also evidence of how that sharing is captured and translated back. This video almost didn’t happened, but God & the Ancestors had me gather with someone who could and did. Beyond what someone can do for you, this project/my work is also about alignment. When people are aligned in purpose, shit happens and things get done. As I watch this clip again, I extend my sincerest gratitude to @dileniation for seeing me and collaborating o this piece with me.






This past Sunday, I joined other artists and muses (models) for the 9th annual Naked Bodypainting Day.
We gathered together in Union Square for another joyful day. Why do I go you ask? For the third consecutive year, I went to offer my body in order to collaborate with another artist in sharing their own work. I firmly believe that the body is the first canvas and what better way to share that message than an embodied experience. Also, being a muse for others is an extension of my own practice. I know that this Black Woman Body is political in its own right, but I also know that art has the power to transcend above all. This body deserves to be adorned & that it will be. So this is an invitation to witness this sharing and gathering. Watch me transform and maybe you will gather with us next year. Until then, share the work of @arc_athens and its fellows.
Shoutout to @andygolub, founnder of @bodypaintingday. Shoutout to @humo_maya for making me into a Cosmic Chameleon.
📸 1-5: My transformation
📸 6: Portion of group shot
All photos taken by @edivictor


The body is our first and probably the most accessible yet very political canvas.
As an artist, my work is centered around cocreating with other artists who are also creating work that is bringing more voices and stories to the collective consciousness.
In my latest photography serie Agbàrá, I created with other Black women who are in their own way creating work that centres liberation by reclaiming power through BDSM.
As tasha shared, the body of the Black woman has always being politicised by others either as capital or product but here the power is reclaimed by THE Black woman herself.
#PostedbyAdéọláNaomiAdérè̩mí
@adeola.naomi
#AdéọláNaomiAdérè̩mí
#week4 #κοινοποίηση #συγκέντρωση #sharing #gathering #AAVirtualResidency #InstagramTakeover













This may seem like a bunch of selfies, but this in an evolving and expanding archive. This is MY archive! Here I’m immortalizing spaces and moments where I have gathered with family, friends, strangers, coworkers and/or peers. This is a practice of honoring the selfie as something sacred. As living ancestor, I wow to leave a legacy that reminds the Black collective of joy. Because my Joy is OUR JOY!!
📸 1: after work glow @performance.space.new.york
📸 2: lunch after visit to @arc_athens headquarters
📸 3: trip to the Harry Potter Flagship store
📸 4: on my way to my 1st Soul Summit in BK
📸 5: surrounded my images of me after a figure drawing class. Hosted by @artschoolscammer & @culturepusher
📸 6: sailing on the Hudson w/ awesome folks from my @penlandphoto workshop
📸 7: a visit to @thefreeblackwomenslibrary new space in BK
📸 8: getting my MJ on!! (I LOVE HIM!)
📸 9: the aftermath of a Break Bread + Build dinner at @adanne.co
📸 10: in my tent @autocamp
#PostedBytashadougé #tashadougé @convhersations_ #gathering #sharing #Συγκέντρωση #Κοινοποίηση #weeklytheme #week4 #day3 #AAVirtualResidency #InstagramTakeover #AdéọláNaomiAdérè̩mí @adeola.naomi #Marievickles @marievickles #AVR6 #art #archive #selfie #photography #sacred #legacy #joy










This year, I ventured into new mediums. I learned about photography & alternative photo processes in a 2 month workshop called “Processing Process” taught by @mercedes_jelinek & assisted by @jonverney @penlandschool. About month later, I was back for another workshop called “Porcelain Performance” taught by @jenniferlingdatchuk.
Taking these two workshops shaped and expanded my artistic practice. The knowledge offered by my teachers immediately shifted the way I share and express my work. In this post, I’m sharing some of what I made and the gratitude for my teachers, along with all my workshop mates. Curiosity is key in my growth and evolution as a person , as well as, an artist. What is something new that you have tried in your art practice?
📸 1-2: “Catch Your Fire” 2022
Cyanotype Collage
📸 3: “Traces” 2022 Digital Print
Currently showing at Soho Photo
Gallery’s National Photography
Competition Exhibition
📸 4-6: B&W Film Prints
📸 7: examples of my own alternative.
photo process called “tashatypes”
📸 8-10: porcelain pieces &
performance shot
#PostedBytashadougé #tashadougé @convhersations_ #gathering #sharing #Συγκέντρωση #Κοινοποίηση #weeklytheme #week4 #day4 #AAVirtualResidency #InstagramTakeover #AdéọláNaomiAdérè̩mí @adeola.naomi #Marievickles @marievickles #AVR6 #art #collage #cyanotype #filmphotography #film #digitalphotography #digital #blackandwhitephotography #doubleexposure #tashatypes #chemigrams #porcelain #performanceart






Tasha was asking in her post about new practices or talking about curiosity, it got me reflect on what new things I started in my practice. I want to respond with my post today to the question, what is a new practice in my art that I have embrace in my practice, a new skill, a new area, a new avenue that I’ve delved into?
I will say this past couple of years with the pandemic. It has been learning to performance in theatres and dance pieces right before the pandemic. My art and spirit has been taking up space and engaging with the audience as the art piece myself in co creation with other artists, of course, but also in a place of the art, the artists.
I believe when we think about the art and the artists being one and unison, we think about art being something outside of the artists an output, something that has been created, whereas right before the pandemic, I started delving into performance.
I became the art and I’ve always thought of myself, as I said before, as the canvas, my body as Canvas, but now it’s not just the canvas. It’s the art piece itself. I am the artist, and the art piece. I wanted to share these pictures from the last weekend before lockdown in Belgium. I was part of a group of performers that staged this performance and sadly, since the pandemic, I haven’t had the chance to take the stage and be the ART again. I am sure I want to continue evolving, learning more and taking up more space and being the art, and the artist at the same time. So that’s my new practice. What about you
Images from Spheres & Circles Circles & Spheres Curated by Isaiah Lopaz, Featuring Adeola Naomi Aderemi, W.G.S.J Isenia, Kopano Maroga & Isaiah Lopaz
#PostedbyAdéọláNaomiAdérè̩mí
@adeola.naomi
#AdéọláNaomiAdérè̩mí
#sharing #gathering #AAVirtualResidency #InstagramTakeover
#tashadouge @convhersations_ #MarieVickles @MarieVickles #photography
#AVR6 #elders #artcustodians #performanceart #artofinstagram #κοινοποίηση #συγκέντρωση
📸 1: after work glow @performance.space.new.york
📸 2: lunch after visit to @arc_athens headquarters
📸 3: trip to the Harry Potter Flagship store
📸 4: on my way to my 1st Soul Summit in BK
📸 5: surrounded my images of me after a figure drawing class. Hosted by @artschoolscammer & @culturepusher
📸 6: sailing on the Hudson w/ awesome folks from my @penlandphoto workshop
📸 7: a visit to @thefreeblackwomenslibrary new space in BK
📸 8: getting my MJ on!! (I LOVE HIM!)
📸 9: the aftermath of a Break Bread + Build dinner at @adanne.co
📸 10: in my tent @autocamp
#PostedBytashadougé #tashadougé @convhersations_ #gathering #sharing #Συγκέντρωση #Κοινοποίηση #weeklytheme #week4 #day3 #AAVirtualResidency #InstagramTakeover #AdéọláNaomiAdérè̩mí @adeola.naomi #Marievickles @marievickles #AVR6 #art #archive #selfie #photography #sacred #legacy #joy










In the high of the pandemic in 2020, I decided to give myself a gift of stillness and healing by going back home to west Africa specifically Togo, Benin, and Ghana to document, immortalise and tell the stories of the every day locals during a global pandemic that seems to have not touched the every day average African who had no luxury of traveling let alone feel the restrictions on a personal levels as most of us did in west Europe through my photographic lens.
Here are images I took in Ganvie, a village on a lake in Benin.
Where woman, children and men went about their daily gathering on boats.
The supermarket is on a boat and the children all gather together to play or go to school on their mini personal boats.
Ganvie is a lake village in Benin, Africa, lying in Lake Nokoué, near Cotonou. With a population of around 20,000 people, it is probably the largest lake village in Africa and is very popular with tourists.
#PostedbyAdéọláNaomiAdérè̩mí
@adeola.naomi
#AdéọláNaomiAdérè̩mí
#sharing #gathering #AAVirtualResidency #InstagramTakeover
#tashadouge @convhersations_ #MarieVickles @MarieVickles #photography
#AVR6 #elders #artcustodians #photography #Ganvie #Benin #συγκεντρωση #κοινοποίηση









I’m so happy to hear that Adéọlá was able to gift herself w/ a trip back home. Stillness and healing is something we all need, especially at the height of the pandemic. I wasn’t able to do the same, however I found and created spaces for folks to gather and share while sheltering-in-place. The impact of those encounters still resonates w/ me today.
Being a reader for @yard_concept circle 7 was something I didn’t know that I needed. @tiana_webb_evans I thank you for the gift of bell hooks’ Art on My Mind. That experience, shared w/ @jillianmrock & @sunrara, planted a seed that blossomed in my program, Read ART Loud. I also had the pleasure of being introduced to Audre Lorde’s Uses of the Erotic through a program hosted by @nottm_contemp facilitated by Keisha Gram. During that workshop, I felt affirmed, but I also recall folks talking about how they wished they had heard Audre’s words sooner in life. This was another moment where a seed was planted and it blossomed into Expand the Erotic: a communal reading and honoring of Uses of the Erotic. In partnership with @lewislatimerhouse, I also developed Illuminating Histories, a STEAM workshop honoring Lewis Latimer, inventor and artist. I share all this to further highlight the power of sharing and gathering (in-person and virtually) because we plant seeds into each other and the rest of us as a community benefit from all that grows. Also these programs are examples of how my art transcends beyond the offerings I make. I hope folks take the time to reflect on how they share what they gain from gatherings they attend.
#PostedBytashadougé #tashadougé @convhersations_ #gathering #sharing #Συγκέντρωση #Κοινοποίηση #weeklytheme #week4 #day5 #AAVirtualResidency #InstagramTakeover #AdéọláNaomiAdérè̩mí @adeola.naomi #Marievickles @marievickles #AVR6 #art #artists #workshops #programs #STEAM #communal #readings #readingcircles #bellhooks #ArtOnMyMind #books #ReadARTLoud #ExpandTheErotic #UsesOfTheErotic #IlluminatingHistories #LewisLatimer
AVR6 Curatorial Reflection #4: Gathering/ Sharing