Conversation: In Conversation:
and I was able to make one sculpture in particular.
Tavarus Blackmon
Then I shifted, because the news came in that I had been asked to guest curate an exhibition at the Berkeley Art Center. It had been paused because of the COVID pandemic. And then they reached out and said, “Hey, we’re gonna push forward. Here are the new dates for the exhibition, and we’re excited to work with you.” So I then kind of switched gears and focused less on my practice and more on the artists that I was interested in putting into conversation together. That turned into an exhibition titled, We Have Teeth Too, which was up for a few months, and it featured work by Natalie Ball, Jordan Ann Craig, Emma Robbins, and Amanda Roy. They’re located all over the States, as well as up in Canada, and back to the Montréal area.
Natani Notah Tavarus
I’m here with Natani Notah, an artist and curator practicing in the Bay Area and nationally as well. I have a few questions about your practice, both as an artist and a curator. The first one is: what has exhibiting been like for you during the last year?
Natani
Well, in the beginning of 2020 I had a few exhibitions and I was really excited about those exhibitions and to work with those curators. So, everything was good in the beginning of the year, and then things quickly escalated. So things started to shut down and exhibitions were being canceled altogether. The first few months of the pandemic, it was definitely challenging to say the least, to feel motivated and to keep making art. There were so many other things that were going on too. COVID scares, looking at the news with the daily death tolls, rising mass unemployment, civil unrest, and in my opinion, criminal political leadership at the time. These things were all at play and were affecting my ability to make work, as well as made me rethink what it means to be an artist, and what is my work track? What am I trying to do with my art practice? How am I trying to communicate messages or inspire others? So I took the first few months, I think, like a lot of people, just sheltering in place, kind of rethinking everything. Then I was able to turn to my art practice and start processing some of the things,
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This was a really nice way to think about the current times and connect with people and bring them all together to have a discussion about representation in the arts. It became a deeper conversation about our place as BIPOC in the art world and outwards, so that was how it went. It was kind of up and down to be honest, but I feel like I also was able to do some really important work as well.
Tavarus
And did your curatorial practice kind of evolve with the changes due to social and physical distancing?
Natani
I definitely think the way that I was approaching it changed. I was doing virtual studio visits rather than going in person or having seen the work in person. I was basing it off of images as well as conversations. And I think that
