Danielle Deadwyler: Enstasy of Rebellion

6 October - 2 December 2023

  • Johnson Lowe Gallery is pleased to present Danielle Deadwyler: Enstasy of Rebellion as part of our current exhibition In Unity, as in Division.

     

    Danielle Deadwyler's multidisciplinary practice spans filmmaking, theatre and performance, delving into themes of race, gender, sexuality, and labor. Her work seeks to examine Black female subjectivity, especially within Southern communities, offering a framework for navigating the complexities and chaos of Black Americana.

  • Danielle Deadwyler

    Is presenting

    Enstasy of/in Rebellion

     

    “I distance myself from myself.”
    Louise Bourgeois
     
    “…of beauty…it’s almost like knowledge, which is to say, it’s what we were born for.”
    Toni Morrison

  •  

    I was born

    seeking a holiness

     

    rigor of me      maker of ~

    army of we      leader of dark

    terror to thee  lover to shadow

     

    I was dead

    holding a shroud

     

    if –       then o

    if ;        then :

    if ,        then …

     

    I am born

    myself from myself

     

    give me head   me sing            we implode

    we are bold     we chant         a space to drift

  • What becomes of me if I dismantle myself? What if the lenses employed to see me on me become/are blurred? Am I pleased, or even pleased by me? I must learn the rules if I am to break me. An ascetic life of autoerotic discovery becomes my eventual mask.

     

    (previously)

    The structure of respectability does not translate to the song of it’s choral members.

    Sing     sing a song      sing out loud   sing out wrong.

    I beg them make a new idiiot of language.

    If (we) even (we) need (we) one.

     

    Cleansing my head

    With water and tongue

    How now holiness

    Space is at the edge                                                                                                                     And I see (we) center(ed)

  • (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

  • Artist Statement

    'My work explores how lines are blurred in the labor of black women, especial are domestic and sexual work, and...
    "My work explores how lines are blurred in the labor of black women, especial are domestic and sexual work, and the impacts on the black body. I’m interested in emboldening black women subjectivity within live performance engagement in local communities, a framework for navigating what I call a Black Americana chaos. Creating spaces for interfacing with black female subjectivity as a daily being in myriad social spheres, as a pedestalized marvel in live performances, film works, sonic/lyrical play and objects is my daily investment.”

  • About Danielle Deadwyler

    Danielle Deadwyler is a multidisciplinary performance artist, actor, and filmmaker. An Atlanta native, Deadwyler is rooted in theatre, dance, and...

    Danielle Deadwyler is a multidisciplinary performance artist, actor, and filmmaker.

     

    An Atlanta native, Deadwyler is rooted in theatre, dance, and creative writing. Hometown staples such as Gate City Heritage House, Total Dance Theatre, Gary Harrison Studios, Atlanta Street Theatre, Henry W. Grady High School, and Spelman College cumulatively honed Deadwyler amongst a distinctly Southern landscape. As a graduate student under Dr. Robin D. G. Kelley, she focused her analysis on issues facing women and African Americans while attaining a Master’s of Arts in American Studies from Columbia University.

     

    As performance artist, Deadwyler’s race and gender-centric works have been included in MAMBU BADU collective's exhibition If We Came From Nowhere Here, Why Can't We Go Somewhere There? (D.C.), Mint Gallery (ATL), Whitespace Gallery (ATL), The Luminary (ATL), Atlanta Contemporary Museum, Atlanta Film Festival, among others. She presented (dis)possessed: the live mixtape (2013), a one-woman theatrical performance art project, at Spelman College’s Museum of Fine Art as a part of their Black Box series.

     

    Numerous grants have supported Deadwyler’s works, from IDEA CAPITAL (2014/2017), ELEVATE Atlanta, Living Walls (2016), Synchronicity Theatre Stripped Bare Lab, WonderRoot Walthall Fellowship, and Artadia. She is a former Atlanta Film Festival  Filmmaker-in-Residence and former MINT Leap Year Residency Fellow.