MIND OF MY MIND

Zoë Argires, Negashi Armada, Imani Campbell, Maya Edmond, Vaishnavi Ilankamban, and Masie Love

Curated by Brittany Adeline King

May 25  -  June 29, 2024

Opening Saturday, May 25, 2024 from 5-7pm

“He strained against the seemingly fragile thread. It stretched easily. Then he realized that he was straining against himself. The thread was part of him. A mental limb. A limb that he could find no way to sever.”

— Mind of My Mind, Octavia Butler (1977)

MIND OF MY MIND is inspired by the aforementioned Octavia Butler novel released in 1977. The story follows the life of Mary, a young black woman from 1970’s LA who is born with a psychic ability known as "Pattern." Mary's origins lie in Doro, a centuries-old immortal entity who has the power to control individuals with telepathy. As Mary grows up, she discovers her unique genesis and potential to become one of the most powerful telepaths to have ever existed.

Butler’s novel challenged me to look deeper into themes of ancient lineage as a mechanism and I’m honored to be able to do so through the works of this group of artists who, I believe, capture unique languages that hone in on ancestry combined with contemporary futurism, each creating their own psychic portal that establishes abilities obtained from the past. Comparable to Bostrom’s Theory of Evolution; the labor of the invention holds the key to a greater code, similarly also to the role of Mary in ‘Mind of My Mind’ (1977). 

This greater code (one could even think of it as “Pattern”) is what MIND OF MY MIND is centered around, where like the Patternists in the book, the works in the exhibition all embody the ways genesis can be enacted. Negashi Armada establishes this through the origins of Exigent Manta — Masie Love maps it through the woven designs of her canvases — Zoë Argires organizes it through the manufactured assembly of Balloons Museum (2024) and Maya Edmond places it using anatomy in contrast with function in The worst thing that can happen for a spider is to be insight (2024). Each work balances this relationship to derivation delicately, Vaishu Ilankamban using methods of holding and being carried through and Imani Campbell’s Second Coming  (2023) encapsulating boundless resolve elegantly while opening up a reality where freedom is the only way forward. 

“The mind of my mind needed me to make the decision that only I could make – to accept it, to work with it, to become one with it.” 

— Mind of My Mind, Octavia Butler (1977)

Text by Brittany Adeline King

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Zoë A. Argires (b. 1996) Birmingham, AL. Based in Lancaster, PA, and New York, NY. “i am a collector: of plastic cases from products I’ve bought , paintbrushes, destroyed from either use or neglect , sequins gathered from my workplace floor , all types of caps (not lids), and mini fountains from the bric-a-brac sections of charity shops in Pennsylvania. these things gain power in number and their definitions are redefined. another item i collect is symbols, which evolve with me over time and earn identities through their autonomy and persistence. With eyes always peeled for these treasures, I am guided through each day. Painting is the framework I return to with my findings, where I reconnect symbol and meaning.”

Negashi Armada is a journey man who’s been on a long road winding through underground rap, the art world, and the fringe nut job spheres. He’s attracted to explosive immediacy as well as timeless drama and competing narratives. 

His work Pre-Columbian Exigent Manta™ , depicts  an action figure of a character that he’s had for some time. Exigent Manta, who is a psychology professor that experiences a cultural awakening late in life and picks up his Grandfather's ceremonial garments. He’s both a vigilante narco shaman.

Imani Campbell (b. 1995) is immersed in explorations of identity, community, and home via the impressions of her ancestral displacement and the collective technologies conjured for their upliftment, endurance, and resurrection. She weaves portals of rememory and rebirth most often through her words and her hands, taking form at this juncture via photography, written/spoken word, and textile arts, yet her expression knows no bounds. In confrontation with the ancient, the untold, and the forgotten -- with what shifts, what’s discarded, and what remains; Imani toils with fabrications of truth and the threads that interconnect them. Her textile work is a literal composite of fragmented, collected, and regenerated material -- a reflection of the delicate expanse that is the diasporic Black tapestry. MIND OF MY MIND is Imani's first group exhibition. She rests between Atlanta, GA and Brooklyn, NY.

Maya Edmond is a multimedia artist spanning from fine arts to music producing and DJing to fashion and costume design. She draws from her professional experiences as an archivist and researcher to enrich her artwork with historical knowledge. Conceptually, she is inspired by avant-garde, afrofuturism and nature. Her original music compositions have been featured at The Hammer Museum and LACMA in Los Angeles and she will complete a creator-maker research fellowship for fashion at Winterthur this upcoming Spring ‘25.

“My work explores the quiet life of the spider, the most-feared, quiet creature who must dwell in the darkness and between the shadows to survive. For, if insight into larger predators who fear her intimidating beauty, she is in immediate danger. Why do we fear such a small thing- is it because we cannot understand her? Her delicateness, her blackness, her quickness. Her web spins a thousand stories, and she is always working while we are sleeping. She builds structure out of her own body, a thread both stronger than steel and flexible in the wind. 

Japanese hosho paper establishes layers of paneling for her web. Several found objects are placed beneath the various layers to add more story to her process, like little things she collects as she goes through her journey. Indigo ink vignettes her eyes as a nod to the historic indigo dyes of her heritage, along with the piece of organic, non-dyed cotton. Finally, a hibiscus flower as a prayer for love and to find her soul mate. Alas, the web lays over her eyes, as a protective spell to keep her out of sight and to keep her spiritual altar of found objects safe. While an avid collector, she is ultimately nomadic and lives within the power of rebuilding homes anew.”

Vaishu Ilankamban is a New York-based visual artist working primarily in sculpture and installation. Originally from southeast Michigan, she worked as an engineer, furniture designer and woodworker for 8 years prior to starting her MFA in sculpture. Her work is a layering of real & imagined memories — recollections of family narratives layered with her own — and an attempt to hold onto or discover values and truths lost due to physical and generational distance. Vaishu is currently a Sculpture MFA candidate at CUNY Hunter College and holds a BSE in Mechanical Engineering and BA in Fine Arts from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Masie Love (b. in 2000) in Washington DC, based in New York/ Long Beach. Received her BFA from California State University Long Beach. Current MFA candidate in Hunter College’s graduate school program for painting.

“I seek to tell the story of my ancestry through pattern and color. I explore the past and present state of my personal identity by recollecting the time I spent in Tennessee. Being able to spend time on the land where my ancestors are from helped me learn more about myself. Growing up I was surrounded by quilts made by ancestors. I was able to get to know my great grandmother through her quilting style, the scraps she chose to work with and the patterns she created. Although I did not get the chance to meet my ancestors or learn their traditions, I can feel them pushing, and guiding me to explore this part of our history now. Recently, I have found interest in incorporating quilting techniques into my work to emphasize the importance of storytelling and documentation to me. By incorporating different styles of quilting into my process, I am able to dive deeper into my family’s history as quilting has been largely practiced by Black women. My hope in making this work is to document moments in my life that have shaped me, I am learning more about myself while simultaneously learning who the people who came before me were. Whether I am using pages from my journal as filling or deconstructing paintings and sewing them back together again, I am creating this art in ode to this tradition and my family. I see my process as a form of language; the patterns in my art are the words spoken to me by my ancestors symbolizing fragments given to me through the stories of our past. I see it as my job to piece them together, translating them into overlapping and intertwined designs.”