Infinite Essence
For this series, I sought to transfigure Black bodies from sites of state violence into cosmic vessels drawn from African cosmological traditions and notions of the soul. I began an exploration of indigenous African mythical narratives and set out to create a visual style that would uniquely capture their cosmic grandeur, dense symbolism, and presentation of Blackness - beyond contemporary racism - as the divine, cosmic source from which all life and existence itself emerge. For this work, I leveraged my training as an engineer to build a camera flash that only transmits ultraviolet light, hand painted the bodies of nude Black models with fluorescent paints that only glow under ultraviolet light, and photographed them in total darkness. For the fraction of a second that the shutter snapped, a transfiguration happened: their bodies were illuminated as the starry universe itself. I placed these glowing bodies into tableaux that were inspired by scenes from the archive of African diasporic myth.
Infinite Essence, the title of this series, is inspired by a quote by Chinua Achebe, who in his reflection on the Igbo conception of the chi, one of the four human spiritual bodies that operates as the divine spark that animates our existence, hypothesized that the chi was “an infinitesimal manifestation of Chukwu (The Igbo High God)’s infinite essence given to each of us separately and uniquely, a single ray from the sun’s boundless radiance” ("Chi in Igbo Cosmology." In Achebe, Morning Yet on Creation Day, 93-103 ). My images seek to capture a vision of the chi by transcending what is solely visible to the human eye through the ultraviolet spectrum. This project, a transfiguration at the intersection of art, science, technology, and myth, that connects the black body to the stars and is rooted in my Igbo background and traditions, showcases a vision of Blackness beyond all boundaries, restrictions, and frontiers.
I print these works primarily on aluminum sheets through a process of dye sublimation. The metal substrate connects me to a deep history of African smithing traditions embodied in figures like the Igbo bronze casters of Igbo-Ukwu and Demme Na, the mythical Dogon smiths that descended from the heavens.
These works are my contribution to reviving our original knowledge systems, vibrationally recalibrating Black spiritual and artistic production of the early 21st century, reestablishing proper fluxes of energy as my ancient duty mandates, and renewing continuities that have been lost.
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SEQUENCE ONE : IGBO
Title: The Flying African
Caption: Throughout the United States, and especially along the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina, stories persist to this day of enslaved Africans who escaped bondage by taking flight and returning to their African homelands. Hypotheses persist as to the origin of this myth, but many point to the 1803 slave rebellion known as Igbo Landing on St. Simons Island in Georgia, where a group of enslaved Igbo people walked into a creek drowning themselves rather than being reenslaved. As they entered the water, they chanted, “The Water Spirit brought us, the Water Spirit will take us home,” and were thus transported to the primordial blackness from which everything emerged.
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Title: Ofu-Obi-Metere-Oha-Mma (Lady of the Largest Heart, The One Whose Compassion Touches All)
Caption: At the beginning of the universe, all was one in the blackness of space. Eke-Nnechukwu, the feminine polarity of the Igbo Primordial Androgynous Deity, manifests Herself as Ofu-Obi-Metere-Oha-Mma, the Lady of the Largest Heart. With Her heart illuminated, She awaits the moment of the cosmic explosion which will martyr Her and lead to the emergence of the cosmos.
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Title: Chukwu's Dance (Entering His Chamber)
Caption: According to the Odachi Nne-Ebere cosmogony of the Igbo people, Obi Mbu (the primordial house) was the first structure of the universe. In perfect architectural alignment at the center of it stood a pillared chamber (Ozi-Obi-Chukwu). At the beginning of time, Chukwu, the masculine polarity of the Igbo Primordial Androgynous Deity, suavely dances His way in and out of this mystical chamber, entering with His back and coming out with His back turned to all and sundry. Chukwu’s dancing in and out of the chamber piques the curiosity of His feminine counterpart Eke-Nnechukwu, which sets off a chain of irrevocable circumstances that lead to our current world and condition.
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Title: Chukwu's Dance (Exiting His Chamber)
Caption: According to the Odachi Nne-Ebere cosmogony of the Igbo people, Obi Mbu (the primordial house) was the first structure of the universe. In perfect architectural alignment at the center of it stood a pillared chamber (Ozi-Obi-Chukwu). At the beginning of time, Chukwu, the masculine polarity of the Igbo Primordial Androgynous Deity, suavely dances His way in and out of this mystical chamber, entering with His back and coming out with His back turned to all and sundry. Chukwu’s dancing in and out of the chamber piques the curiosity of His feminine counterpart Eke-Nnechukwu, which sets off a chain of irrevocable circumstances that lead to our current world and condition.
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Title: Chukwu's Retreat From the World
Caption: Chukwu, the masculine polarity of the Igbo Primordial Androgynous Deity, never fully recovers from the traumatic shock of the death and resurrection of His feminine counterpart Eke-Nnechukwu. Discerning the inevitable shortcomings from the new existential state that arrives after the shattering of the First World, Chukwu decides to leave the physical universe behind, return to His solitary pillared chamber (Ozi-Obi-Chukwu), and lock the Door of Mercy (Uzo Ogo) behind Himself.
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Title: Mmadu (The Enlightened One)
Caption: In Igbo, the word “mmadu” means “human being,” but it is a contraction of the words “mma” and “ndu,” which together literally mean the “beauty of life.” In this cosmology, the beauty of life is in becoming a fully realized, spiritually enlightened individual, an “enlightened one” who is deeply connected to and draws on the primordial blackness of the Igbo creator gods Chukwu and Eke-Nnechukwu.
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Title: Oku na Mmiri (Fire and Water)
Caption: A powerful Igbo axiom states that “mmadu bu oku na mmiri” (the enlightened one is a synthesis of fire and water). Fire and water are both cosmic elements that were born at the origin of the universe. The ancient Igbo divined that the human body incarnated the same fundamental elements found in the stars and that we host quantities of these elements in our physical forms.
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Title: Be Chukwu (Divine Realm of the Creator)
Caption: According to the Igbo wisdom tradition, our Chi (or Highest Self) resides in the Primordial Androgynous Blackness of Be Chukwu, the Divine Realm of the Creator. Dreaming in perfect harmony with the Creator, our Chi's "super-deep-sleep" gives rise to temporal experience as we know it. Our lives are these dreams, and when we die, our Chi awakes again in Be Chukwu.
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SEQUENCE TWO : DOGON
Title: The Vision of Innekouzou
Caption: Innekouzou Dolo was a celebrated Dogon diviner and Ammayana, “priestess of Amma.” Closing her eyes, she was adept at fusing the blackness of her inner imaginal worlds with the external blackness of outer space. Delving into the womb of Amma, she had visionary experiences and uncanny perceptions of stars and celestial bodies. In 1950, she shared with French anthropologists Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen the weight, size, composition, and color of Sirius B, a star impossible to detect with the unaided human eye.
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Title: Amma's Womb
Caption: In Dogon cosmology, Amma is the Dogon personification of Primordial Androgynous Blackness. Prefigured signs within Amma encode all of the potentiality of the universe, from stellar bodies to the human fetus. In the utter blackness of Amma’s infinite womb, all beings await their gestation and form.
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Title: Amma Emerges From Their Womb
Caption: In Dogon myth, the universe emerges when Amma, the creator god, opens Their eyes. This act breaks the egg containing Amma’s womb, and in a spectacular moment of vibratory action, Amma emerges from Themself into utter blackness. The spiraling patterns on Their form and of Their movement prefigure the principle of motion that will make all life possible.
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Title: Amma Creates the World, Molding the Po
Caption: Opening Their eyes, Amma, the Dogon creator god, emerges from Their womb and creates the po seed first among Their creations. In the primordial blackness of space, Amma molds the po pilu in Their hands and places within it all of the signs of creation from Their infinite womb. The po is the image of the creator, and it remains invisible and inaudible as it spins between Amma’s hands, scattering particles of matter and the essence of creation.
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Title: Nommo Semi, Guardian of Space
Caption: At the start of creation, the Dogon deity Amma emanates from Themself eight spiritual figures called Nommo, who are the androgynous, immortal, self-fertilizing, bisexual progenitors of humanity. Nommo Semi (The Sacrificed Nommo) is the third of this group, and They are sacrificed by Amma to purify the universe as atonement for the wicked deeds of Their twin Ogo. Planets and stars spool forth from Their blood. They are then resurrected and installed as the Guardian of Space.
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Title: The Fall of Ogo
Caption: Ogo is the fourth of the divine eight Nommo who are the progenitors of humanity, and he is the agent of disorder in Dogon myth. He rebels against Amma, the Dogon creator deity, and tears himself from Their primordial unity. Rampaging through the universe seeking his female twin, he descends to Earth, which he defiles, and then mounts two celestial journeys back to heaven to steal more of Amma’s spiritual principles. In his final journey to heaven, Ogo steals four souls from another Nommo. As punishment, he is mutilated, and he falls through space to Earth. Grasping for the filaments of Amma’s creation, Ogo loses his ability to return to heaven forever. On Earth, He is transformed into the Pale Fox.
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Title: Demme Na (The Smith)
Caption: The Smith was the first divine human ancestor to descend from the heavens to Earth in Dogon cosmology. He slipped into the workshop of the Nommo, Heaven’s smiths, and stole a portion of the sun. He then fled, mounting a cosmic granary, flying on it to Earth, and carrying this burning piece of divine creation with him. This mass of live embers and white-hot iron is still used by human smiths today.
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Title: The First Human Steps Foot on Earth
Caption: Developing within the Nommo’s ark during its descent to Earth from Sirius, the first human ancestors in Dogon cosmology begin to transform from their unarticulated form as Anagonna Bile and gain 7 articulations, mirroring the growth of the fetus in the womb. These first eight human ancestors will exit the Nommo’s ark (i.e. be born) in this form, and as they step foot on Earth, they gain 22 articulations and become “Inne” (persons). Inne represents the developed human being in Dogon cosmology. With these 22 articulations, the bodies of the first humans become complete, and they proceed to walk and breathe on earth, with their fish gills transformed into a form of terrestrial respiration. They carry their spiritual principles in their clavicles.
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Title: Go Sa (Sister of the Dance)
Caption: Go Sa, “Sister of the Dance,” is the twin sister of Amma Sérou and one of the Dogon eight divine human ancestors that descended to Earth from Amma’s womb. She serves as Amma’s first priestess on Earth, and her name alludes to the dances of Dogon women that represent fish swimming in water. In these dances, using successive steps, the women recall the formation of the fetus (a symbolic fish) and its swimming movements in the waters of the womb.
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Title: Ya Sa Dyongou
Caption: In Dogon cosmology, Ya Sa Dyongou is one of the eight divine human ancestors, four pairs of male-female twins from whom all of humanity descends that were molded in the womb of the androgynous Dogon Creator Amma. Having descended to Earth in a mystical ark from Amma with the sacred Nommo spirits, Ya Sa Dyongou is in charge of births, aids women in childbirth, and guides the fetus from the Blackness of the womb into terrestrial existence.
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Title: Lébé and His Articulations
Caption: In the Dogon system, Lébé was a descendant of the eighth Nommo (a group of androgynous, immortal, bisexual progenitors of humanity). The oldest human of his time, he was the first to die and be buried. Upon his internment, at the strike of the smith’s anvil, a serpent god descended into his tomb and swallowed his body whole. The god then expelled a massive torrent of water, regurgitating Lébé’s body into colorful stones that formed the outline of his body. The joints were important focal points and represented for the Dogon the most important parts of a human being, and there was a sacred number associated with each one.
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