Ayana V Jackson, It is only when you lose your mother that she becomes myth, 2019. Courtesy of Mariane Ibrahim
In an immersive video installation, Ayana V. Jackson herself - wearing body paint and otherworldly costumes – can be seen swimming amid coral, fish, and shipwrecks. Her plunge is escorted by the call of whales, sonic pulses, and an ethereal signing from what could be mermaids. Now on view at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, this presentation is indeed the centerpiece of From the Deep: In the Wake of Drexiya. Inspired by Drexciya, an imaginary underwater kingdom populated by the children of pregnant women who were thrown overboard or jumped to their deaths during the Middle Passage...
