NOTES FROM THE CURATORS

Diasporic Futurism

Part I: The Present Future Part II: The Future Futures

CURATED BY GLTTR COLLECTIVE: LEAH KING AND JUAN CARLOS RODRÍGUEZ RIVERA

Diasporic Futurism was born out of the desire to showcase and celebrate emerging and established Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) artists whose work reckons with the themes of imagination, identity, place, and joy. Diasporas honor the history of forced migration as a result of political, cultural, religious, and physical subjugation that is the story of many BIPOC peoples currently living on occupied land. Futurism envisions imaginative, alternate realities full of beauty, possibility, and liberation, systematically denied to those populations due to the white supremacist limits of western society.

When we began conceptualizing this show in mid-2019, our minds were interested in revisioning Black and Brown representation in art and cultural institutions by centering voices of our community members and celebrating the beauty and richness of artists we love. Though the world has completely turned inside out since then, we know that this work is just as urgent as ever.

True to our curatorial perspective—which is embedded with both a love of Afrofuturism and magical realism—the exhibition features video-based and live activations, immersive and multidimensional gallery experiences, video installations, 3-D art work, surrealist painting, sculpture, and comic and graphic drawings. Every piece reflects an aesthetic that is firmly rooted in the desire to find joy in the dynamic chaos of systemic upheaval, while unapologetically centering the voices, lives, and stories of BIPOC people.