#blackatlantic

“I am fascinated by the ways in which African Americans are reclaiming objects that were taken from them...The colonizers stole a lot of jewelry, ornaments, gold, and transported them together with the slaves they put in chains. When you look at my work, the chains are referencing this history, but they are also reclaiming it by turning adversity into adornment.”—@Babiryesculptor In a recent @bombmag interview with @ksenia.m.soboleva, #BlackAtlantic artist Leilah Babirye’s discusses her sculpture “Agali Awamu (Togetherness)”, on view at @brooklynBridgePark, and reflects on the present and the future of her artistic practice. Visit the link in our bio to read the full interview. 📷 #LeilahBabirye, “Agali Awamu (Togetherness),” 2022 Courtesy of the artist, Gordon Robichaux, NY, and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London Presented by Public Art Fund as part of “Black Atlantic” on view at Brooklyn Bridge Park, New York City, May 17–November 27, 2022 Photo: @nicholasknightstudio, Courtesy Public Art Fund, NY. (at Brooklyn Bridge Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/Ckv28qxsR1k/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#PAFpicoftheweek peers into the whale like skeletal interior of @huthhayden’s “Gulf Stream.” #BlackAtlantic 📷 @paulgarderestudio. (at Brooklyn Bridge Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/CeEY58wOGMO/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#PAFpicoftheweek @kiyanwilliams’ “Ruins of Empire” and the work it is reimagined from, the Statue of Freedom, which sits atop the U.S. Capitol building. 📷 @fashioningtheself #BlackAtlantic (at Brooklyn Bridge Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cfwizi1uRjK/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

For her work in #BlackAtlantic at @brooklynbridgepark, Tau Lewis @taulewis was inspired to make three cast iron sculptures by her fascination with crinoids, the family of marine creatures. The artist’s castings “ruminate on the wandering of these ancient animals, the global dispersal of their fossilized bodies, and their coexistence with Black bodies above and below the Atlantic and throughout the diaspora.” 📷 Tau Lewis, We pressed our bellies together and kicked our feet, we became something so alien that we no longer had natural predators, 2022. We watched humankind evolve as we absorbed into the sea floor, the moon stared down at us and told us the Earth had a heavy heart, 2022. We wondered if the angels had abandoned us, or if they simply changed shape without letting us know. Every night creatures vanished, every morning strangers would arrive, 2022. Artworks: Courtesy of the artist and Night Gallery Photo: @nicholasknightstudio , Courtesy of Public Art Fund, NY (at Brooklyn Bridge Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/CeylJeWOt0x/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

"The lounge chair is sitting on car rims that are very specific to slab culture which comes from Houston, Texas, where I was born." Dozie Kanu's work for #BlackAtlantic explores tensions between public and private aspects of the self through an ensemble of surreal objects with personal meaning. Learn more at publicartfund.org/BlackAtlantic @dozie.kanu, “On Elbows," 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Project Native Informant, London. Photo: @nicholasknightstudio, Courtesy of Public Art Fund, NY (at Brooklyn Bridge Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch40oZpOLki/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

A very special #PAFpicoftheweek, @babiryesculptor’s work for #BlackAtlantic in @newyorkermag: ‘The Brooklyn-based sculptor and L.G.B.T.Q. activist Leilah Babirye, who was born in Kampala, Uganda, in 1985, was granted asylum in the U.S. in 2018, after being outed by her country’s notoriously homophobic press. Through Nov. 27, “Agali Awamu (Togetherness),” a towering ensemble of wooden figures (pictured above), which Babirye carved with a chisel and a chainsaw, is on view in Brooklyn Bridge Park as part of “Black Atlantic,” a group exhibition from the Public Art Fund reflecting on themes of the African diaspora.’ 📷 Photograph by Donavon Smallwood for The New Yorker (at Brooklyn Bridge Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/ChKzQ33F3Ce/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

For his work in #BlackAtlantic, artist and co-curator @huthhayden combined a clinker-built boat hull exterior with a 🐋whale-like skeletal interior to create this empty vessel washed ashore titled “Gulf Stream.” Visit PublicArtFund.org/BlackAtlantic to learn about the connection between the work, an 1899 painting by Winslow Homer, and a Kerry James Marshall’s 2003 reinterpretation of that painting. image: Hugh Hayden, The Gulf Stream, 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Lisson Gallery. Photo: Nicholas Knight @nicholasknightstudio , Courtesy of Public Art Fund, NY The Gulf Stream was commissioned by Public Art Fund and presented as part of Black Atlantic at Brooklyn Bridge Park, New York City, May 17 – November 27, 2022 (at Brooklyn Bridge Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/ChpM550AjGq/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

“Happy Pride from the queen herself” #PAFpicoftheweek from the artist herself @babiryesculptor. “Agali Awamu (Togetherness)” @brooklynbridgepark as part of #BlackAtlantic. https://www.instagram.com/p/Ce6OdNRgtnF/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=