O
n the third floor of the Museum of Contemporary Photography’s current
13-artist, 33-piece exhibition exhibition “In Their Own Form,” are two sets
of work that depict the dreamscapes of Senegalese children. On the right
side of the exhibition space is Senegalese photographer Alun Be’s series
“Edification” (2017), well-composed snapshots of young boys engaged in
common activities, such as assisting each other onto the back of a bus or
bathing in the sea while peering through virtual reality masks. At the back
of the room, French photographer Alexis Peskine’s “Aljana Moons” (2015)
presents posed portraits of young people dressed in handmade astronaut
suits, designed by Peskine from food packaging detritus: old tomato cans
and discarded rice bags.
“I didn’t exactly want [Afrofuturism] connected to the title of the
exhibition because it has been dressed up as this very new, trendy thing,”
she says. “There are a number of reasons why that is the case, and I think
that is both good and bad. It gets people talking, and gets people
interested, but I wanted to focus on Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. DuBois
in my [exhibition] essay because they had been working toward an
Afrofuturist-styled thought very early on. I want to highlight Afrofuturism
as much more historical and consider their important contributions. I
wanted readers to realize that alternative realities [like those imagined
by Douglass and DuBois] have always been something that marginalized
people, people of color, have kind of accessed to buffer experiences here
in the U.S. and elsewhere.”
Through 7/8: Mon-Sat 10 AM-5 PM, Sun noon-5 PM, Museum of Contemporary Photography, 600 S. Michigan, 312-663-5554, mocp.org. F
