As Arthur Jafa writes in his text “My Black Death,”, abstraction in early twentieth-century European art-dating back to Cubism and German Expressionism, which then evolved into Bauhaus teachings and International Modernism-was set in motion by the plundering of Sub-Saharan Africa’s many visual cultures. It should be noted while these references suggest a design intellectualism that possesses an entirely white lineage, there is more to the story. We see icons of architectural history (Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House or Peter Eisenman’s House VI, perhaps) compressed and united in these shapes. A collaboration with the designer Griffin Frazer, these sculptures are abstractly imaged through simple geometry and a totalizing white finish.
Set to an experimental music score, the video performance shows dancers in a bucolic hillscape punctuated by minimalist white sculptures. In April 2018, she partnered with Uniqlo to direct Metatronia (Metatron’s Cube), an interdisciplinary performance piece hosted by UCLA’s Hammer Museum. Solange, "Metatronia (Metatron's Cube)," 2018. As Solange stated in an interview about the piece, " The purpose for me is to create sound and movement and scenography to develop my own architectural language and to invite the right spaces to coexist with the work." The piece was choreographed for not only the place but also for the time of day, where nuanced warm colors are found in the museum’s limestone façade, the orange and brown costumes of the performers, and in the setting sun. There, bands of wind instruments were strewn about the site where acoustics had been calculated to converge at the terrace where dancers, singers, and instrumentalists performed. In November 2019, a large cast of dancers and musicians performed the piece titled Bridge-s at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. (In an interview, Solange described how an experience with racism in Marfa inspired past work.)īeyond the first step of establishing her presence in these institutions, Solange also engages directly, intentionally, even pointedly, with their architectures. They’re also spaces where she has experienced institutional marginalization of non-white people firsthand.
These places aren’t unfamiliar to her they are environments that Solange knows personally. It’s important to note that her task of world-making begins with making space for Black expression and existence where it hasn’t been openly offered previously. These locations aren’t just backdrops through spatial engagement, Solange’s work establishes herself and her performers in venues that are typically understood as fairly white institutions. Following were performances at the Guggenheim Museum in New York ( An Ode To, May 17, 2017) and the Chinati Foundation in Marfa ( Scales, October 8, 2017). A look at her music videos and set designs reveals this ongoing interest in architecture and urbanism, but also the historical and social contexts that shaped these fields.īeginning with her live performance of Scales at the Menil Collection in April 2017, Solange has produced events on location at some of the most impressive arts institutions in the country. So a lot of my work is really about creating universes, I’m trying to create cities on stage.īecause of this interest, Solange has a striking ability to pair works of architecture with music and choreography. A lot of the early years of my life were spent on tour buses and venues and airports and even paying attention to the architectural language in these spaces, these spaces became my home. I think so much of my work is about world-making. In a rare video interview with Trevor Noah on The Daily Show, Solange shared: She curates these spaces holistically, with diligence and a clear appreciation for the built environment.
Solange is aware of how the environment surrounding her work and audience impacts her viewers. Similarly, the visual aspects of her work frame a clear aesthetic lineage while breaking new ground. The result is something familiar yet inventive. Musically, Solange takes classic tropes of soul and R&B and adapts them to her own style. We see natural landscapes-specifically the expansive deserts of West Texas and New Mexico-and stage sets that celebrate the reductive geometries favored by minimalist artists.
In another there are dresses made entirely of leaves or yarn, monochrome costumes that unite a cast of dancers, and choreography that repeats simple gestures. In one of Solange’s music videos, we see a palette of muted colors blossom from a gentle lavender into a vivid shade of purple.