Art intimately entwines history and heritage while expressively confronting the stereotypes of the creator’s ancestry. From a series of performance-based photographs, Ayana V. Jackson questions the works of anonymous photographers who projected desire found in imagery of African female subjects throughout the global south during the 19th and 20th centuries.

The artist’s process involves identifying reoccurring motifs in the original images, interrogating them, performing them and reconstructing them. She holds the position of photographer, “subject”, “author” and editor of these images. While the work is consolidated into singular photographic prints, Archival Impulse is at its root performance based work by drawing on images sourced from the Duggan Cronin collection in South Africa.

This exhibition is presented in collaboration with Michael Steinberg Fine Art and Gallery MOMO.

It is being showcased in the Visual Arts Gallery until February 27th to conclude NJCU’s African-American History Month program. Gallery hours are 11:00 am to 5:00 pm and by appointment.

 Photo credit Dakota Santiago