IRMANDADE

Lines that cross the diaspora

Brotherhood is a word that refers to the bond of kinship between brothers, sisters or deeper connection between diverse people.

The concept of this exhibition is related to a search for community, brotherhood/sisterhood, which was disconnected in the Afro-diaspora during slavery. Today this reconnection has been strategically sewn among black people from the recognition of the other as a brother or sister and in small communities, reinforcing the concept of brotherhood/sisterhood that was taken from us in the past.

Using the lines of thread as an analogy for connection and reconnection, the artist connects each canvas with red thread. On the canvases are images of black people connected to each other by blood and ancestry. Sometimes these threads signify a search for something deeper, perhaps belonging, self, lost connection, and others they stand as a confirmation of the existence of this concept.

During the period of slavery black people were connected to each other by chains and taken from their homeland, and today we reconnect in a shared gaze, customs, stories, and in our collectivities and spirit. This reunion is the possibility of rebuilding the notion of irmandade.