Les Racines du Baobab: Dans Un Famille D’eau (The Roots of the Baobab: Inside a Family of Water)
a solo presentation by Yacine Tilala Fall
Hamiltonian Artists is pleased to announce Hamiltonian Artists Fellow (2019–2021) Yacine Tilala Fall’s first solo exhibition at the gallery, “Les Racines du Baobab: Dans Un Famille D’eau (The Roots of the Baobab: Inside a Family of Water).” The exhibition will be on view from August 22 to September 14, 2020. Hamiltonian will be open by scheduled appointment times Tuesday – Friday 11am – 4pm.
Inspired by Fall’s experience of the Baobab tree in Senegal, traditionally known as the tree of life, the metaphor of this historic tree serves as the foundation for the exhibition. As with the human body, the basis of the tree’s materiality is water, which runs as a current through Fall’s work. The space will be intermittently activated by performance as a bound and camouflaged subject moves through the installation, animating the tension of the suspended sculptures. The exhibition includes over 150 ceramic pots, natural textiles, and performance to illustrate what the artist sees as a deeply rooted collective intimacy.
Yacine Tilala Fall (Washington, DC) is an interdisciplinary conceptual artist. She received a BFA from the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design. Using performance, sculpture, painting, and natural materials her work investigates identity, politics, and history through the lens of the body. Her Senegalese heritage and American upbringing inform her repetitive and labor-intensive art practice. Fall has performed and exhibited at Arlington Arts Center, Virginia; and Gallery 102 and Carrol Square Gallery, Washington, DC. In 2018, Fall was a performer at Kennedy Center Millennium Stage in Nag Champa Art Ensemble’s performance and production “The Landing” with Uptown Arthouse and at the Smithsonian American Art Museum with Jamal Gray with Uptown Arthouse.
Still from “DOLLY BABY” (2018). Pictured: Diahann Caroll in “Claudine”
Performing Incantations: Deconstructing Racialized and Gendered Media Erasure
curated by Dawne Langford, featuring Britt Sankofa
Hamiltonian Artists is pleased to announce “Performing Incantations: Deconstructing Racialized and Gendered Media Erasure”, featuring Britt Sankofa, curated by Dawne Langford. The exhibition will be on view from August 22 to September 14, 2020. Hamiltonian will be open by scheduled appointment times Tuesday – Friday 11am – 4pm.
“Performing Incantations” is centered and inspired by historical defiance and how it informs how we navigate and resist continued oppression. Images work on a subconscious level that influence response, who is perceived as innocent or guilty, and who is deserving of justice. The foundations are moving or being moved, and there are still some bricks that need loosening.
The use of the word “incantations” evokes the power of words, intention, and harnessing the spiritual to influence or accomplish a task. Linguistic manipulation through the lens of imposed racial and gender-based oppression can shape perceptions reflecting disparate realities.
This exhibition, organized by Dawne Langford, features work from filmmaker and playwright Britt Sankofa vibrantly demonstrating black feminine empowerment, the presence of ancestors, and defiance when faced with male subjugation of the feminine. This exhibition will also interrogate the legacy of media erasure and misrepresentation, aiming to demystify this process and assert subjectivity in place of oppression.
Britt Sankofa (Washington, DC) is a filmmaker and theater artist with roots in Washington DC, Durham NC, and Cameroon. After studying film and digital media at Virginia Commonwealth and New York Universities, respectively, she fell in love with theater and performance simply because “there’s no camera cuts and there’s no ‘take 2’”. Her work is heavily influenced by intergenerational black experiences, sex and gender roles, and childhood nostalgia. Film and theater works have been featured at Feinstein’s 54 Below (2016), Afrikana Independent Film Festival (2017-19), Love is the Only True Act of Resistance film showcase for Godsbanen Arts Center (2018), Direct Current showcase for Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage (2018), We Got Next: Young Contemporaries exhibition for the DC Council for Arts and Humanities (2018), the Black Femme Supremacy Film Festival (2019) and the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Women Filmmakers Festival. In her spare time, Britt likes to dig her feet in the soil and sip on something dark.
Dawne Langford (NYC / Washington DC) is an independent documentary producer, artist and curator. Exhibition venues and collaborations include Mel Chin Studios, George Mason University, Georgetown University, Transformer, SPRING/BREAK, Times Square Arts Alliance and The Smithsonian Asian Pacific Center.
August 22 - September 18, 2020
Opening Reception and Artist Talks:
August 22, 7pm, rsvp here.
Performance in conjunction with Siren Arts:
August 20, 7pm, link forthcoming
Press Releases