The Michael C. Carlos Museum presents 'Indigo Prayers: A Creation Story'
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Saturday, November 23, 2024


The Michael C. Carlos Museum presents 'Indigo Prayers: A Creation Story'
Charmaine Minniefield (American), Freedom, 2020, indigo and crushed oyster on canvas, © Charmaine Minniefield, Courtesy of Charmaine Minniefield.



ATLANTA, GA.- On March 19, the Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University is presenting the exhibition, Indigo Prayers: A Creation Story, a series of paintings by local Atlanta artist, Charmaine Minniefield, inspired by her time in the Gambia, West Africa searching for her grandmother's ancestral lines. The resulting body of work builds on an ongoing exploration of the Ring Shout, an African American practice of resistance whose West African origins predate enslavement. This full-bodied rhythmic prayer was taught to Minniefield by her great-grandmother. It was performed by her ancestors during enslavement as a way to secretly preserve their African identity.

Minniefield’s work explores indigenous pigments like indigo, crushed oyster shells, and mahogany bark as evidence of cultural preservation through time and across the Middle Passage. Her work recalls the history of these elements as ancestral totems reaffirming identity, like the Adinkra symbols in freedom quilts, hidden in plain sight to show the way home. Minniefield inserts her own body into each work as an act of remembrance. Her movements, embodied memories of her maternal ancestors, reassert Black identity and resilience as resistance today.

Indigo Prayers: A Creation Story is being presented in conjunction with Minniefield’s Praise Houses, which recreate the small, single-room structures in which enslaved people gathered to worship. The first in the series of Praise Houses was constructed at Oakland Cemetery in conjunction with Flux Projects to celebrate Juneteenth 2021 and honor the over 800 enslaved people interred in the cemetery’s African American burial grounds. While Minniefield’s Praise House at Oakland has now closed, she plans future locations in downtown Decatur, on Emory University’s Atlanta campus, and at South-View Cemetery, where Congressman John Lewis was laid to rest.

Firmly rooted in womanist social theory and ancestral veneration, the work of Charmaine Minniefield draws from indigenous traditions as seen throughout Africa and the Diaspora to explore African and African-American history, memory, and ritual as an intentional push back against erasure. Minniefield’s creative practice is community based. Her research and resulting bodies of work often draw from public archives as she excavates the stories of African-American women-led resistance, spirituality, and power. She recently served as the Stuart A. Rose Library artist-in-residence at Emory University. Through a collaboration with Flux Projects, she presented her work Remembrance as Resistance: Preserving Black Narratives in Atlanta’s historically segregated cemetery to honor the over 800 unmarked graves that were discovered in the African-American burial grounds. Minniefield was awarded the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts Our Town Grant to present her Praise House project at three different locations in the metro Atlanta area to celebrate the African-American history of those communities. She currently splits her time in residence between Atlanta and the Gambia, where she continues to study the origins of her cultural identity and Indigenous traditions by tracing the Ring Shout.










Today's News

July 26, 2022

Pop Art legend Ruby Mazur announces opening of the Ruby Mazur Gallery in Waikiki

Eli Wilner & Company frames important paintings for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Scandinavian furniture among star lots for Vintage & Modern Design auction at Ewbank's

San Francisco shines with new museums, restaurants and parks

Carleton Varney, interior designer known as Mr. Color, dies at 85

kaufmann repetto presents Pae White's seventh solo exhibition at the gallery

Karma opens an exhibition of sculpture and painting by Thaddeus Mosley and Frank Walter

Edward Feiner, 75, dies; Revolutionized the look of federal buildings

Jack Nicholson's Joker Costume from 1989's 'Batman' scares up $125,000 at Heritage Auctions

Pace welcomes Virginia Jaramillo

Open now at The Museum Of__ : Dana Van Horn, CAUGHT

Paul Sorvino, master of the mild-mannered mobster, dies at 83

GRIMM opens 'The Kingfisher's Wing', a group exhibition curated by Tom Morton

Gen Z designers made it big on this app. Now They're graduating.

'Seagull' review: Blurring the lines of fiction

Xavier Hufkens presents an exhibition on photography in the work of Belgian artist Michel François

Berkshire Museum welcomes new Executive Director

Artist Rose B. Simpson's powerful work featured at the Princeton University Art Museum

King's Cross unveils 'Natural Cycle': A giant interactive street art installation

'Finest Known' 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card expected to sell for $10 million+ at Heritage Auctions

The Grand Rapids Art Museum presents the first Major American Impressionism exhibition in over a decade

The Michael C. Carlos Museum presents 'Indigo Prayers: A Creation Story'

TJ Boulting to open 'Ahren Warner: we have a space for your every mood'

What are pay'n-play casinos?

Tips to Stay Safe While Gambling




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Houston Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง
Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful