Sit Still

Spiritually speaking, Blackness is not still. Despite this, the movement and motion of Black people have been intensely restricted and policed, resulting in the displacement afflicted upon Black people across the diaspora throughout time. Reflecting on the ineffable nature of the Black spirit, in this series of works, curator Arshi Chadha and artist Collin Patrick confront the juxtapositions of being held still. Considering movement as an act of autonomy that transcends stillness, their work concerns the capturing of the continuously shifting and resisting, while contending with the nature of power imbalances that pertain to acts of voyeurism.

Historically, lens-based practices have been weaponized to impose narratives of Blackness as “other.’” And it’s through those narratives that the dominant, hegemonic class have justified colonial violence against the Black body, crafting the Black form as a subject for pathology. The relationship between image maker and “subject” is renegotiated in the exhibition Sit Still.