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’,
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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.”
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.
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
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
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.
This past Sunday, I joined other artists and muses (models) for the 9th annual Naked Bodypainting Day.
The body is our first and probably the most accessible yet very political canvas.
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!!
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.
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?
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.
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.
AVR6 Curatorial Reflection #4: Gathering/ Sharing