eight verses for Lorraine O’Grady
In Eight Verses for Lorraine O’Grady, Camille Bacon offers a poetic and deeply personal reflection on the interdisciplinary artist Lorraine O’Grady’s profound influence. The piece begins with the evocative statement, "Lorraine O’Grady’s living was a poem about irreducibility," capturing the essence of O’Grady’s career as one defined by her refusal to be confined to any singular identity or medium. Bacon celebrates O’Grady’s groundbreaking contributions to Black feminist art, highlighting her expansive approach to visual and written language as a means of confronting and reimagining Black female subjectivity. O’Grady’s multidisciplinary work—from her iconic performance as Mlle Bourgeoise Noir to her innovative curatorial practices—challenged the art world's conventional boundaries and set the stage for future generations of artists.
Bacon reflects on O’Grady’s enduring legacy as a trailblazer who rejected limitations, emphasizing how O’Grady's art has created space for diverse voices and ideas to flourish. Bacon writes, "These sentences coagulated around a waxing moon, around the sentinel dangling in the gaping sky that presided over her Nine Night," setting the tone for the reverence with which she approaches O’Grady's work, acknowledging her profound impact on art and culture. Through her work, O’Grady has inspired countless artists and curators to challenge the status quo and embrace complexity, ensuring her lasting place in the history of avant-garde art.
